The Hero I Love
by AnimatedWriter
Summary: What if Minato and Kushina weren't killed on the night of the Kyubi's attack? How would Naruto's life (and the rest of the villager's lives) differ? And what if Obito was brought back to the village instead of him being left to die? Would there be peace in the ninja world or would there be a new threat to their existence?
1. Chapter 1: The Morning Of The First Day

"Narutoooooo!" The mothers voice was heard throughout the whole Uzumaki house. "You're going to be late for your first day, ya know!" The woman tapped her foot impatiently against the floor whilst looking up the stairs where the child was slumbering.

There was a gasp from upstairs and a lot of noises soon after. The farther, who had been sitting next to the red haired mother this whole time let out an awkward chuckle which he quickly regretted as his wife sent daggers from her eyes to him. He begun to blush a little and looked back down at his newspaper, regretting reacting to the situation that had seemed to make his wife more furious than her usual self.

After a full 5 minutes their son came downstairs. He moved his hand through his hair and yawned. His appearance could only be explained as untidy. His hair was a mess, his shirt was half tucked in and his face showed that he wasn't thinking about tidying his appearance up before making his first impression to his peers or teachers.. He pouted,"You could have woken me up earlier so I wouldn't have to worry about being late, ya know." He rubbed his eye tiredly and stretched.

His mother sighed and rolled her eyes. She begun to neaten her son's appearance; there was no way in hell that Kushina would allow her baby to walk out into the open world with such an appearance, imagine then judgement from other mothers! "If you want to become a ninja then you can't always be dependent on other people." She ruffled his hair and giggled as he tried to stop her.

A sudden contrast in attitude would have shocked anyone who wasn't in the Uzumaki family but Naruto and Mianto were used to Kushina Uzumaki's emotions and attitudes changing before you can even get used to her current attitude. Naruto put his hands on top of his head. "Alright, alright Mom, let's just eat breakfast!" The child jumped onto his chair and started to eat with his family.

It didn't take the three too long to finish eating, mostly because of Naruto's growing enthusiasm to go to the academy already with completely contradicted with his late start earlier this morning. Maybe it was partly because of the fear of what his mother might do if he showed little excitement for such an important moment in his life.

His father slowly stood up and began to stack up the plates before he smiled at Naruto. "Alright son, let's get going then."

The child's eyes widened "D-dad? You're coming as well?" It wasn't often Naruto's farther wasn't busy with stacks of paper work since he had the title of Hokage; it wasn't easy trying to balance family time along with business time.

His mother winked at him "Yeah that's right. Minato convinced them to have the day off just for you!" Both parents knew that the arrangement made would mean Minato would have to work extra hours in the office but it would be worthwhile to be part of the memory for Naruto.

Naruto blushed a little and smiled widely up at both of his parents. "G-great! Let's go!" He laughed and ran out of the door, his enthusiasm was certainly not forced anymore.

Kushina shouted at her son, "Naruto don't go running off without us, ya know!" Naruto kept on running and shouted back, "I'm not two years anymore mom!" The red haired woman shouted again and ran after him.

Minato rubbed the back of his head and thought to himself, 'He really has the same personality and attitude like Kushina's. They really do have much more in common than just what is inside them both.' He slowly walked out after them, locking the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2: The First Day At The Acadamy

"Mooooom, let go of my hand. We're almost at the school, ya know?" Naruto's mother had caught him before he was even a hundred metres away from the door of the house which he had ran out of foolishly. Now she insisted on holding her child's hand for the rest of the journey. His farther, Minato, was walking next to Naruto's left hand side and he couldn't help but smile at the situation his son was in right now.

As they walked closer and closer to the academy, Kushina kept on showing her love for her child as she kept her grip on his hand. Naruto started to blush. "M-mom, this is really embarrassing. Please let go of my hand before anyone sees" He begged as he tried to break free of Kushina's motherly grip but failed. Minato saw that his son was acting more awkward and embarrassed with every step they took. "Kushina, Naruto wants to set a good example to those who he'll be calling his classmates. He can't do that whe-..." Kushina gave him the same glare he gave him earlier this morning. The glare made Minato slightly shiver. " H-he can't do that whilst he's distracted by his mother's love."

Kushina blushed a little and gave in. She let go of her son's hand. Naruto smiled gently but tried to not act too happy just in case of enraging his mother. "T-thanks dad." His father winked down at his son.

Naruto was glad his father had helped him when he did since after another minute or so they arrived at the academy. Minato and Kushina smiled as nostalgia hit them when they saw the building. The woman slowly held her husband's hand and interlocked their fingers as they remembered the memories they shared together at this place. Kushina sighed gently. "I hope Naruto will create great memories here like we did." She whispered. Minato smiled at his wife and squeezed her hand

"I'm sure he will, sweetheart." He kissed her forehead softly before he looked back at the building.

Naruto looked around the place, he saw all the soon to be students that he would be with. A boy with black hair caught his eye. He was with his mother, father and older brother. Naruto blinked a few times. He noticed a white and red symbol on their backs. He had seen that symbol before, but where? It was the symbol of the Police Force! The symbol also belonged the the Uchiha clan. Naruto slowly found the links and guessed this family was from the Uchiha clan. The young boy with black hair turned around and saw Naruto staring at him as if he were trying to figure something out. "What do you want?"

Naruto quickly shook his head "W-what? Uhh...Nothing!" Naruto blushed slightly in embarrassment. He thought that the child's first impression of himself was that he was some kind of weirdo. He kicked himself whilst he tried to conceal his humiliation.

The older brother of this Uchiha child noticed the voice that his little brother was talking to and turned around. "Why hello Naruto, it's so good to finally meet you." He gave the Uzumaki a warm smile. "So you're in the same year as my little brother Saskue?"

Naruto looked up at Sasuke's older brother confused. "...eh?" He shook his head before replying, "Do I know you?"

Just at that moment, Minato and Kushina walked over to where there child was. As they did, the older brother of the Uchiha child bowed. "Good morning Lord Forth."

Minato smiled at the gesture. "And good morning to you too Itachi." Saksue's older brother, Itachi, smiled back.

Kushina on the other hand, pinched her son's cheek for what she remarked as a rude way to reply to Itachi.

Itachi was one of the most strong and most loyal Ambu shinobi that worked for the Forth Hokage, Minato.

Because of this, the Uchiha clan has a tight bond with the Namikaze clan and the Uzumaki clan. Itachi and his father are well known in the Uchiha clan for being some of the members who helped form this bond.

Itachi looked back down at Naruto and smiled once again. "I hope you and Sasuke become good friends at the academy."

Naruto smiled widely when he heard the word 'friend'. "Yeah I'm sure we will!"

Sasuke looked at Naruto up and down. "Hmph..." He slowly walked over to where the other children were getting ready to enter the classrooms.

Naruto walked after for him. "Hey wait for me, ya know!" And with that, the two boys left their famalies as they entered the building of the academy.


	3. Chapter 3: Months Of School

Many months had passed since Naruto began to study in the academy. His mother, Kushina, waited outside of the school for the hours of lessons to finish so she could take her son home. After a couple of minutes, the students began to leave the school building. Naruto saw his mother waiting and gasped. Why was she still picking him up after school? It was so embarrassing! He tried to sneak away as he walked backwards into the academy. He didn't notice Iruka behind him and bumped into him. "Naruto what are you doing? Class has finished." Naruto swallowed hard and slowly looked up at Iruka. "Uhhhh...N-nothing." Iruka sighed. "Well your mother's right over there." He points to the child's mother. "She's waiting for you." Naruto swallowed hard once again and sighed. "O-ohhh I didn't see her there, ya know." Great. Now he had to walk home with his mother or else Iruka would know.

Kushina saw her son walk out of the academy. She smiled widely and crouched down. She kissed him on the forehead. Naruto blushed hard. "Mom! D-don't do that in public!" Kushina giggled; Naruto sighed. He was glad that most of his classmates had already left and that it seemed no one saw his mother's action of love towards her son. The yellow haired boy quickly shook his head. "Anyway let's just go now." They walked out of the academy grounds and back home.

Naruto allowed Kushina to hold his hand on the way back home. He insisted it was only because no one was around. As they were coming closer to their home, Naruto noticed a boy and his mother laughing and smiling in a park together. Naruto smiled gently and looked down to the floor. His father was always busy with paper work and his mother was always busy around the house so they usually had no time to do activities like the boy in the park was doing. Kushina noticed naruto was upset and smiled gently. "Hey Naruto..." Naruto slowly looked up at his mother. "Yeah?" Kushina picked her son up and put him on her shoulder. She grinned at him. "Let's go have some fun, ya know."

Naruto laughed loudly and excitedly as Kushina pushed him on the swing. He was feeling a mixture of happy emotions with each push his mother did. Kushina giggled gently. She was so glad that she could still have these kind of moments with her son, even though they were so rare now. They continued to play in the park. They played on the rocky climbing wall; the metallic, shiny slide and the blue, squeaky seesaw until the sun begun to set. Kushina blushed a little "whoops. I guess I got carried away there. Let's go home; We still haven't had dinner yet." Naruto smiled gently and nodded. "Alright mom." They both walked down the street to their house.

Minato didn't come home until late that day. He slowly opened the door and whispered. "Hey sorry I'm so late I had a bunch of paper wo..." He noticed the two members of his family on the couch sleeping. He smiled warmly and both of them and sighed gently. He grabbed a blanket and put it over the people whom he loved the most. "Goodnight you two..." He kissed both their foreheads and walked into his bedroom.


	4. Chapter 4: Kushina's Anger

Naruto woke up the next morning before his parents. He blinked a couple of times before yawning. He tried to stretch but soon found out that he was unable to. He realised that his mother was cuddling him tightly whilst she slept. He blushed hard and tried to break free of his mother's grasp but was unable to. "M-mom..." he whispered "I'll...I'll be late for school, ya know." To be honest, the boy couldn't care less if he were late or not. He just found the whole situation was giving him great embarrassment. He went to shake his mother but stopped in his tracks. He remembered the last time he woke his mother from deep sleep. The only word to describe her mood that morning was a word that would get his mouth washed out with soap. Pissed. Naruto shaked his head. No. He didn't want that again. He sighed gently and rested his head against his mother's chest. He eventually fell back to sleep. Being on time to school wasn't worth Kushina's 'pissed' mood.

The yellow haired boy only got a got a couple minutes extra sleep before he was rudely awakened. "Naruto! Get up! You're not being late for school one more time!" Naruto slowly opened his eyes and saw an annoyed Kushina. Crap! Did he wake his mother up by accident? He yawned and rubbed his eyes. "But Mom...What does it matter if I'm late?" Naruto's mother clenched her left hand into a fist and an irritated smile appeared on her face. "What does it matter?" Some of the Nine Tails chakra leaked out and made her hair define gravity. "IT MATTERS IF YOU WANT TO BE A NINJA AND SUCCESSFULLY BECOME A NINJA!" Naruto blushed and swallowed hard. It was true, he had woken his mother. When he realised what he had done he didn't take another second to think. He jumped down onto the floor and ran to his room to get ready.

Naruto got ready as fast as he could to avoid his mother's mood getting any worse. Whilst Naruto was getting ready Minato walked out of his and Kushina's room; Kushina was waiting at the front door for Naruto. The Forth Hokage yawned. "Is everything alright? What was with the yelling?" Kushina blushed gently and smiled at her husband. "Hmm? Oh, no need to worry about it. Everything's fine now." Minato guessed that she had calmed down. He was thankful that she had calmed down because he didn't want to face her if she was still in the worst mood known to mankind. "Well if you say so." He kissed her gently and held her close to him. She giggled and nuzzled his neck. "I love you Minato~" Minato grinned and picked her up. He kissed her again "I love you more my angle~"

"Ewww Mom, Dad. That's gross!" Kushina's eyes widened. She didn't know her son had already came downstairs. Minato sighed gently and smiled. He put Kushina down and walked over to Naruto. He ruffled his hair whilst he chuckled. "Naruto. You know it's Valentines Day tomorrow right?" Naruto's father smirked slightly. "Have you got someone special a gift for tomorrow?" Naruto blushed slightly, the girl he liked only had eyes for the Uchiha kid. Naruto put his hands in his pockets and looked away. "No... Valentine Day is stupid." Kushina glared at her child "Naruto! You better get someone something for tomorrow, ya know." Naruto's eyes widened. Why did his mother care so much of he got a gift for someone or not? But he wasn't going to argue with her. He didn't want her in another one of her bad moods.

Naruto didn't arrive late to school that day, he arrived just on time. As he sat down on his desk he began to look around the classroom. Who should he get a gift for? Sakura? She never paid any attention to him since all her time in the academy seemed to be studying or paying attention to Saskue. Ino? She was similar to Sakura, she spent quite a lot of time trying to get the attention of the Uchiha and she was quite aggressive sometimes. Naruto kept scanning around the classroom and stopped when he noticed a pair of pale purple eyes looking at him. The owner of the eyes blushed hard and quickly looked away. A grin slowly appeared on Naruto's face. Hinata! She was one of the only girls in the class that didn't obsess over Saskue; Hinata was also the only girl in the class with short hair. Naruto chuckled. He knew who he was getting a gift for tomorrow.


	5. Chapter 5: Valentines Day

The Yellow Flash, Minato, got up early on Valentines Day. It was something he did rarely since he tried to get as much sleep as possible before he had to get into work and work through stacks and stacks of paperwork. He smiled warmly as he walked into his room where his wife was. She had just woke up before he walked in. Minato chuckled softly. "Good morning Kushina." He kissed her forehead. Kushina gently rubbed her eyes and glanced at the clock. It took her a few seconds to realise the time. Her eye widened in shock. " 's going to be late for school!"

Before the worried mother could get out of bed, her husband stopped her. "It's alright Kushina, I've already prepared everything and sent Naruto to school." Kushina sighed relief then looked up at Minato. "Did you walk him to school?" The Forth Hokage blushed slightly. "Well...about two thirds of the way there until he insisted that I let him walk by himself." The red haired mother was opened her mouth to argue with him but closed it. She was too tired to argue. "Thanks honey..." She smiled lovingly up at her husband. She blushed hard as she noticed the food on the plate next to him. Minato grinned. "When I got home I just had enough time to prepare breakfast for you. So... Enjoy heheh." He passed the plate over to his loving wife. She smiled widely and kissed him gently. "Thank you so much Minato."

Naruto chuckled as he got into class with a present wrapped up that his mother had helped him make it last night. He took a deep breath and grinned happily. He walked up to where Hinata was sitting. "Hey Hinata." The Hyuga looked up at the Uzamaki's waterfall blue eyes. She noticed the present that the boy was holding in his hands. She blushed hard. "O-ohhh hey N-naruto... Is...Is t-that for Sakura?" They both glanced at the pink haired girl, Sakura, who was over at Saskue's desk like most other girls. Hinata looked down at her desk and twiddled her fingers. Naruto shook his head. "Nope. This is for you Hinata. Happy Valentines, ya know." Hinata's entire face turned red and quickly looked back up at her crush. "F-for me!? Y-you got me a gift N-naruto?" She swallowed hard. Naruto laughed slightly and put the box down on the shy girl's desk. "That's what I said heheh." He slowly walked back down to his desk.

The Hyuga was somewhat glad that Naruto went back to his own desk because she felt like was on the urge of passing out in embarrassment and happiness. Her eyes widened in shock after about a minute where she tried to calm herself down. How was she going to give Naruto his present now? She was too embarrassed to walk all the way to his desk. There were too many people in the class and she wouldn't know what to say. She shook her head quickly and whimpered quietly. She looked down at the yellow haired boy. As soon as the lesson begun she had gathered her thoughts together and she promised to herself that she would give it to him after school.

At the end of the day Naruto's opinion on Valentines Day was still the same: it was pointless. He hasn't got anything from anyone all day which contrasted how Saskue's day went with almost every girl in school. He groaned as he walked out of the academy building, not trying to hide from his mother this time.

"Uhmm N-naruto..." A person with a soft, quiet voice was standing in front of the Forth Hokage's son. The quiet person blushed hard and looked down at the ground. It had taken the timid person all day to build up the courage to say that one sentence." Naruto stopped walking and put his hands behind his head. "Oh hey Hinata." He cocked his head and pouted. "Is...everything okay? Did you not like my gift?" The girl's face became redder and redder each second. "W-what? N-no I loved it N-naruto." She swallowed hard as her face became hotter with embarrassment. She slowly revealed a wrapped up present that she was hiding behind her. She closed her eyes tightly. "H-happy V-valentines Day..." She was ready to hear the upcoming rejection of her gift as her heart pounded against her chest.

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. He began to blush slightly and smiled widely. "R-really Hinata? For me?" Hinata replied with a slight nod. Naruto slowly took the gift. "Thank you Hinata...you're so kind, ya know." Hinata's eyes widened in shock and her heart skipped a beat when she received the complement from Naruto. "Y-your welcome N-naruto." She slowly opened her eyes and smiled shyly.

A woman slowly walked over to the two kids that were together outside the academy building. She put her hands on the shoulders of The Uzumaki. Naruto's eyes widened and he quickly turned around to see his mother standing before him. "M-mom! Uhmm... H-hey." Kushina giggled as she grinned. "Hey Naruto. Is this your girlfriend?" As soon as Hinata heard the word 'girlfriend' her whole face turned red once again in embarrassment. Naruto shook his head as he began to blush as well. "N-no mom! We're... Just friends." Naruto sighed gently. "Isn't that right Hinata?"

The Hyuga looked down to the floor. She was disappointed that she wasn't Naruto's 'girlfriend' however, she was glad that she was his 'friend'. She gently nodded her head but didn't say anything. She was to embarrassed and to shy to say anything, especially with Naruto's mother there.

The red haired woman pouted. "Aww that's a shame. Anyway, we should be getting home now Naruto." The boy's blush slowly faded away. "Uhmm...yeah okay Mom." Naruto sighed then slowly smiled. She waved at the embarrassed girl. "Bye Hinata! See you tomorrow, ya know." Hinata smiled shyly and waved back as she watched her crush walk away. "Y-yeah...see you tomorrow Naruto..."


	6. Chapter 6: The Title Of Hokage

A week or so after Valentines Day the weather started to get warmer. It seemed as if winter was fading away as the new month was getting closer. The days were getting longer and the nights were getting warmer; spring was close on reaching the Hidden Leaf Village.

"Naruto." The Yellow Flash walked into the living room where his beloved wife and son were. "Would you come with me for a while?" Naruto swallowed hard, he assumed he was in trouble. "Umm...s-sure alright Dad." The child slowly got off the couch that he was sitting with his mother on. Kushina glanced at her husband and gave him a loving smile; Minato blushed and gave his wife a loving smile back before he and their son walked off.

Naruto groaned as he and the Forth Hokage walked up to the top of the Hokage's Mansion. "Dad... Why are we going to the top?" He pouted gently. As soon as the Uzumaki asked this question they arrived at the very top of the Hokage's Mansion. This spot gave a clear view over almost every inch of the village that Minato was the leader of. From the Academy to the Main gates. If could all be seen from this one place. Minato chuckled. "You ask why we're here Naruto?" Naruto replied with a nod and looked up at his father, noticing his attention was now on the four faces that were carved into stone.

"Do you know who these four people are Naruto?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "Duhh. Everyone knows who they are. The one on the far right is you and the other three are the past Hokage." Minato chuckled. "That's right. But do you know there names?" Naruto blushed slightly and looked at the four faces "Uhh... Someone, someone, Old Man Third and you, Minato, my Dad." Minato rolled his eyes and give his son a light smile, he had a feeling that he hadn't been listening much in class.

"Well then, let me tell you then. And please listen." He turned around to face his son. "The First Hokage was Hashirama Senju. He was one of the founders of this village and also created it alongside his best friend. He is still known to this day as one of the strongest ninja." Minato stopped talking for a few seconds to see if Naruto was still listening. Naruto nodded gently and his father continued talking.

"The next Hokage, The Second, was Tobirama Senju. He was brothers with the First Hokage. He helped the village grow even stronger after Hashirama's death." Minato smirked gently. "So who were the first two Hokage?" Naruto smiled gently. "H-hashirama and his brother Tobi...rama?" Minato smiled even more and nodded.

"The Third Hokage is not called 'Old Man Third', his actual name is Hiruzen Sarutobi. He was taught by the First Hokage and he taught every ninja the will of fire that Hashirama's taught him. He has made all our Ninja much stronger with his wisdom." Minato grinned. "And Hiruzen taught Jiraya Sensei who taught your farther." He rubbed the back of his head.

"And last but not least there's me, Minato Namikaze. Before I was Hokage I was known as the 'yellow flash' by most ninja from other villages. And without help from Jiraya. The Third Hokage, your mother and everyone in the village, I would have never have become the Forth Hokage."

Naruto sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Okay I get it. All the Hokage changed the village in some way but why are you telling me this?" Minato smiled sentimentally down at his child. "Naruto, your dream is to become Hokage right? To do so you don't just need physical strength, you'll need to gain the trust of the ninja of the village and make the village even greater than it already is." The Forth Hokage put his hand down on top of the child's head. "I'm sure that you will become a powerful ninja just like the past Hokage and one day have your face next to mine up there." He pointed up at the current and past leaders of the village. "But...you'll need to work hard because Obito has the same dream as you do."

Obito Uchiha. The boy who risked his life to save his friends. He had a warm and open heart. He had been close to Naruto whilst he grew up and still to this day they would train together. Kushina had said their personalities were almost identical. But even still, the Uzumaki wasn't going to be beaten by an Uchiha any time soon! After Naruto thought about Obito for a couple of seconds before he shook his head slightly. "Obito may have more experience than me since he's older. And he may have the sharingan. However, therr is no way is he becoming Hokage before me! He can be the Sixth Hokage because the title of the Fifth Hokage has already been taken by me!" Naruto chuckled and so did his father. "Well then...you'll have to train hard, study hard and make relationships with people in the village if that is going to be true."

Naruto blushed slightly as they walked back inside. He was sure he could train hard however, it seemed that he couldn't find the secret to learn ninjutsu or genjutsu effectively. Also, he knew that he was terrible at his studies just like his mother was. But still there was no way that was going to stop him from achieving his goal. He looked up at his father and smiled warmly. He was glad that he gave him that talk since it made his dream become much clearer.

When Naruto walked back downstairs his Mom picked him up and grinned. "Hey Naruto. Want to go to Ichiraku's for dinner?" Naruto looked up into his mother's eyes confused. "Ichi... Raku? What's that?" Kushina looked at her son as if he had just asked the most stupidest question ever. "What's Ichuraku's? Hasn't Obito ever taken you there." The mother's smile widened. "Well... You'll see when we get there. I bet you'll love it..."

* * *

Naruto looked up at the ramen place and cocked his head. "So... Ichuraku's a place that serves food?" Kushina nodded whilst holding her son's hand. "That's right. Here we can get the world's greatest ramen!" Naruto's eyes widened in shock. Ramen. It was what had quickly became his favourite food a few years ago and now his mother was telling him that the best ramen in the world was just meters away from him. "R-really!? No joke?" Kushina replied with a nod and a wink. "Yup, that's right. Come on let's go inside."

The mother, father and son walked inside and sat down. The mother ordered three bowls of miso ramen. Naruto looked around the small restaurant. "Hey mom, it's not very big place for the 'worlds greatest ramen." Kushina ruffled her child's hair. "Don't let the appearance of the place fool you." Naruto couldn't think of a reply because the ramen had just been served. He forgot about everything else as he stared down at the bowl in amazement. Not only was the ramen served so quickly after ordering, the appearance was outstanding! He had never seen a bowl of ramen look so appetising; he had to stop himself from drooling. He looked up at his parents and the chef. "T-thanks for the food!"

Kushina was right, Ichuraku's ramen was the 'worlds greatest ramen' Naruto walked out of the building whilst happily holding her hand. Minato smiled warmly at his child. "I'm glad you liked it son." Naruto nodded. "Yeah I loved it! Can we go aga-" Naruto was interrupted by a girl running towards them.

"Minato Sensei!" Minato turned to his left to see a girl with brown hair running towards them alongside a boy with goggles on his forehead. "Rin? Obito? Is everything alright?" He looked at two of his former students. Rin furiously shook her head. "N-no. Kakashi just come back from a mission with two other Anbu ninjas and they were rushed into hospital." Obito nodded to what Rin had just said. The Forth Hokage's eyes widened and he looked at his family. "Umm sorry... I'll be back home soon. I need to go and check how Kakashi is doing." Kushina nodded to her husband and with that, The Yellow Flash had disappeared in an instant.


	7. Chapter 7: The Three Anbu

Konoha's hospital was one of the best in the five great nations. One of the main reasons for this was because most knowledge about medical ninjutsu was taught from a woman called Tsunade - one of the Three Legendary Sannin; The hospital had increased dramatically in quality ever since Tsunade obtained the title of Head Doctor. The hospital that was situated in ehe Hidden Leaf Village provided services such as ultrasound scans to rehabilitation to saving lives that are in critical state.

Minato walked down the clean, white corridor to the room that Kakashi and the other two ninja were recuperating; Every footstep he took down the long corridor echoed and faded away when he took his next step. 112. That was the number that the Kakashi The Copy Ninja was in. Minato slowly slid open the door that belonged to the room 112. As he walked in he noticed the white haired anbu sitting up in a hospital bed reading a book by one of the other Legendary Sannin. Minato sighed slightly in relief and smiled. "Kakashi. You seem to be recovering already. I was quite worried since Rin had made it sound like the situation was much worse."

Kakashi slowly put down the book next to the bed he was in as he slowly looked up at his former teacher. "Sensei. I wasn't expecting to see you here so quickly. I only got here a couple of hours ago." He sighed. "I used my sharingan too much and..." He moved the material that was covering his lower body to the side. He revealed the bandages warped around his waist. "I was lucky; they didn't hit any vital spots. The ninjas that attacked us three... They seemed to be rouge ninjas..."

Minato sat down next to the hospital bed. He was shocked that there could be any rouge ninjas from anywhere that could damage these three this badly. "I see... What village were these ninja formally from?"

"They had Hidden Mist Village headbands." A person close to Kakashi answered the Forth Hokage's question before he could. Minato looked over to the black haired anbu that answered the question. "Hidden Mist? Rouge?" He slowly closed his eyes as he thought for a couple of seconds."Itachi... Did any of these individuals happen to have an unusual sword?"

Itachi put one hand to his left temple as he thought about the question. "My memory is a little hazy but... I think one or two of them did have swords that looked quite unique. I also remember that there was also someone else with them who wore a mask that looked like they belonged to the anbu or another hidden organisation in the Hidden Mist." Itachi shook his head as he tried to remember the fight that didn't happen too long ago. "But the ninja with the mask was definitely rouge as well... So I guess the individual stole it or used to work with the anbu." Kakashi gently nodded in agreement whilst Minato listed to the Uchiha's every word.

After the yellow haired leader thought for a while he slowly stood up. "And how's Te... " He shook his head. "I mean Yamato. What happened to Yamato?" He glanced over at Tenzo, or Yamato since he preferred to be called by his code name.

Kakashi sighed. "He suffered the worst. He used up most of his chakra and broke a few bones in both arms." The white haired ninja frowned. "These ninja were extremely powerful. I've never seen rouge ninjas that are so powerful."

Minato frowned. The three of these anbu's mission was only to retrieve information regarding the chunin exams being held in the Hidden Stone Village. So why were rouge ninja interfering with them? Especially in an area nowhere near the place they used to belong to. Could it be possible that they were going to attack the Hidden Stone Village? Or were there also ninja who used to be part of the Stone Village that are part of this powerful group of rouge ninjas?

Minato sighed. "I'm very sorry you three. This was supposed to be a simple C rank mission for you but it seemed to turn out much worse than I could have ever imagined."

Kakashi shook his head. "No Sensei, it's not your fault. You couldn't have predicted that those rouge ninjas would be there." Kakashi gave a slight smile from under his mask.

Minato smiled back at his former student. "Well I'm glad that you don't resent me for what happened." He looked at the three ninja. "Now, I don't want to be rude but did you get the information about the upcoming chunin exams?"

Itachi looked up at the Forth Hokage and nodded. He tossed him a sealed scroll that he had been hiding. "That's the information that the village gave us. We also found out that there is a high potential for the Hidden Leaf Village to host the next Chunin Exams in a couple of years."

Minato smiled even more. "Great work." He was glad that there was at least some good in this whole situation. "Well then. I'll let you three rest now. Please, take all the time you need to recover." After Minato had said goodbye to the two conscious ninjas, he walked out of the hospital room 112.

As Minato walked out of the hospital he sighed gently. He glanced up at the red sky whilst the sun was setting. He had thought about changing Kakashi from an anbu and into a jonin in charge of a four man squad. And after what happened on the mission he was even more certain that Kakashi should become a Jonin leader for a team. He looked at his home in the distance then concluded his thoughts. He would talk to the former Hokage and Kakashi about the possible changes for the white haired ninja in the near future.

As Minato walked into his house he saw his loving wife and child playing a game on the table.

Naruto put his cards that were in his hands, down onto the table. "Urgh... This is no fair! I can't play any card games mom!"

Kushina smirked and put her cards down onto the table. "Well the only was you'll get better at playing these card games is through practice, ya know." She giggled a little as she saw her child pout at her reply.

Minato slowly walked over to the table. "Hey you two. Looks like you two are having fun."

Kushina looked up her husband and gave him a worried look. "Hey honey... Is Kakashi alright?"

Minato gave her a reassuring smile. "Yes he is alright. All three of them are beginning to recover right now."

Kushina sighed relief and smiled. "Well that's great then." The red haired mother began to put the cards away. She smiled at Naruto. "Alright you, I think it's time for you to go to bed."

Naruto pouted once again. "What? Oh no fair mom." Naruto's actions then contrasted his words as he began to stand up. He didn't want to disobey his mother in fear of her getting into a bad mood. He sighed and stretched. "Well... Goodnight mom, dad." The two parents both hugged their son. Naruto blushed and smiled widely. The boy chuckled as he looked up at Minato and Kushina. He hugged them back goodnight and slowly walked to his room.

Minato wrapped his arms around his wife and smiled lovingly at her after Naruto had walked away. "Well...it's been quite an adventurous day."

Kushina replied with a nod and rested her head against her husband's chest. "It has been..." She slowly held Minato's hand and interlocked their fingers.

The Forth Hokage chuckled slightly and kissed her forehead. He then walked with Kushina to their bedroom.

* * *

As day eventually turned into night, there ninja were still traveling in the Land of Earth.

The leader of the group dragged his weapon behind him. "Urgh... Those ninjas earlier set us back. We better not be late for our rendezvous."

The ninja next to the leader was also carrying a sword but he was holding it against his shoulder. "We had to make sure that they didn't follow us. They were anbu from the leaf. It was possible that they were sent to spy on us."

The third ninja wasn't carrying a sword but their face was covered by a mask. "We should be quite. We're near the rendezvous point and we don't want to be caught now.

The other two ninja nodded in agreement. All three ninja began the speed up as they disappeared into the darkness of the night.


	8. Chapter 8: The Mask From 9 Years Ago

"Sorry to summon you all here in such short notice." The Forth Hokage chuckled slightly and rubbed the back of his head.

Tsunade, Jiraya,The Third Hokage and Minato were in the hospital room with the three anbu. He had sent them all a message earlier that morning to all meet in room 112 to discuss about the rouge ninja that attacked the three jonin that are now recovering in the same exact room. Minato was glad to see that Yamato was now conscious with his other two teammates now.

Minato took a deep breath as he collected his thoughts. "Well the reason I wanted to talk to you six was because of the incident of the rouge ninjas... And what we can do to stop them"

Kakashi looked up at his former Sensei. "But Minato Sensei. What is there that we could do? These are rouge ninjas that seem to attack anyone who sees them and they're always on the move. So wouldn't it be very difficult to track them down?" Minato was about to interrupt but Kakashi continued with his questions. "Also, why are we six the ones you want to talk to it about? Shouldn't you inform the Mizukage to try to identify these individuals instead?"

Minato put his hand up to stop Kakashi. "Kakashi...I will explain, just give me the chance." He smiled reassuringly to his former student. "Now to begin with..." The Yellow Flash revealed a scroll. "This was given to us about 5 days ago from the Hidden Sand Village. It says that three rouge ninja attacked a four man squad from their village near the borders of our two lands." Minato glanced at Itachi. "The ninja who were attacked couldn't remember much of the rouge ninjas other than two having swords as their main weapon and at least to of them had Hidden Mist headbands."

Minato continued with all the information that he had that could possibly be linked to the rouge ninjas. The information came from various different villages and even though there wasn't much of it there was enough to connect them together amd suggest that the the rouge ninja that attacked the anbu were no ordinary, low life attackers.

"Now... The reason I wanted to talk to you six." Minato turned to Jiraya. "Jiraya Sensei. You're infiltration and information gathering skills surpass anyone's I know. I know it's a lot to ask for but could you go on a mission to track down any information you can obtain about these three ninja?"

Jiraya chuckled and folded his arms. "Normally I wouldn't even think about going on a mission like this where I could possibly encounter ninja that could attack me in an instance." He looked into the blue eyes that belonged to The Yellow Flash. "But since you are now the Hokage and my former student... I guess I'll make an exception."

Minato grinned back at him and then turned to the other Legendary Sanin in the room. "Tsunade. You're medical ninjutsu is the best in the Leaf Village? Is it possible for you to do a test on the wounds these anbu received to see if there's any traces of metal from a possible sword attack?"

Tsunade nodded and closes her eyes, only replying with: "Of course Lord Forth."

Minato looked over at the white haired boy. "Kakashi. You still follow the way your father did and Obito does today: to keep your comrades in first priority and the mission second. However, whilst being an anbu, this can be quite a difficult thing to keep. So I would like you to be a leader of a four man squad... For genin. The new generation of ninja."

Kakashi looked up at the Forth Hokage dumbfounded. "Minato Sensei... Why a jonin teacher? Even though it's hard to keep comrades in first priority in anbu missions but I still manage to do so."

Minato walked over to the window in the room. "And that is exactly why i think you'd be better as a jonin leader. I think that you could be one of the best jonin to teach the new generation that there is things more important than making sure a mission is completed. That teaching is crucial for teamwork to work successfully."

Kakashi sighed. He couldn't really say no to his former Sensei who was now the Hokage. He slowly began to think. Being a Jonin leader for a bunch of new genin would be a nice change in pace for him. "Well... If you think it's for the best, I have no reason to argue with you Sensei."

The Third Hokage coughed. "Minato. I know you want to make sure that these rouge ninja do not hurt anyone else but..." Minato turned around the look at his predecessor talk. "Isn't what your doing dangerous and time costly? Jiraya will be in grave danger whilst looking for information and Tsunade,even with her advanced skills, will take hours, possibly days to try and find traces of a sword attack. Also, I'm sure you have tasks for Itachi, Yamato and I. So why? Why go to such extreme measures to try to capture the rouge ninjas?"

Minato looked back out of the window. "As you all know, 9 years ago the 9 Tails attacked the village. The cause of this was becuase a masked ninja extracted the beast from Kushina straight after Naruto was born, when the seal keeping the Kyubi in was weakest." He took a deep breath, remembering the traumatising event. "Many people that lived in our village died that day and so many people were close to being killed. If it wasn't for the ninja of our village's help to restrain the 9 Tails and help me get it away from the village then I could have never sealed half the 9 Tails inside of Kushina and the other half in Naruto."

Kakashi looked over at The Forth Hokage comfused. Why was he talking about this event? "But what has that got to do with these rouge ninja?"

Minato slowly looked back at the six ninja in the room. "I fear that the masked ninja belonging to that group of rouge ninja may also be the same ninja as the one that attacked our village 9 years ago." The Yellow Flash slowly walked around the room. "The reports on a rouge ninja with the same mask, voice and fighting skills could all be linked to that group of rouge ninja and also be linked to the masked man that almost killed my family." Minato sighed and there was silence was a couple of minutes before Minato began to smile slightly. "Or maybe I'm just being to superstitious and worrying so much."

Jiraya put a hand on his student's right shoulder. "Minato. You're not worrying too much. This really could be the same masked man. And if it is we can finally find his motives for not day. But, if it's not him these rouge ninjas will still have to be restrained."

The Third Hokage sighed. "Normally I wouldn't bother about rouge ninja that only attacked our anbu once. However, if what you believe is true and the masked man is part of these rouge ninja then that's a completely different case. I will help you as much as I can to track these ninja down and I'm sure everyone else here will help with their will of fire as well."

Minato sighed and smiled widely. "Thank you... I'm greatful. To all of you." He rubbed the back of his head. He was glad that his predecessor and teacher were willing to help him try and find out who these rouge ninjas really were.

After about another hour the meeting was over, Minato had explained to everyone what they would be doing. He wanted to keep this a secret to everyone else in the village though since he didn't want mass panic that the masked man was still roaming the world. He slowly looked up at the faces of the Hokage carved into the rock after he left the hospital. He will find that masked man one day and he will find out the motives that lead to costing countless of lives and which almost took the life of his wife and new born son that dreadful day.

* * *

 **Authors note: Sorry if you found this chapter dull however I felt that it was necessary for the story to develop in future chapters**


	9. Chapter 9: Rivals

The Sun was beating down on the floor, signifying that summer was drawing nearer and nearer. Iruka took advantage of the positive weather to bring his class outside to have combat training with one another. For the students such as Hinata, who belonged to the Hyuga clan, their taijutsu was strong so it was less of a challenge when they were teamed up with students with clans that don't focus much on taijutsu.

After Iruka had mentally teamed everyone up he cleared his throat to silence his students. "Alright. First up: Naruto and Sasuke."

Most of the girls in the class began to scream in excitement since they knew Sasuke was going to win; It was so obvious that the Uchiha would end up being victorious that there was no real point in the match even beginning. However, there was one girl that wasn't cheering for Sasuke . The girl also happened to be in the top 3 best taijutsu users in there class."

"D-do your best Naruto..." The Hyuga said this barely above a whisper as she twiddled her fingers.

The Uzumaki and Uchiha met in the middle, about 10 feet away from each other. Naruto smirked as he looked at the Uchiha with full enthusiasm; Sasuke showed little emotion on his face as he looked back at the Uzumaki who would be on the floor, defeated in less than 10 seconds of the battle.

Despite Sasuke's over confidence he still made half a seal sign towards Naruto to signify that he is about the battle him. Naruto grinned and made the same sign with his fingers towards the Uchiha.

Iruka looked at both of the students and nodded gently. "Alright you two ready? And... Start!"

The Uchiha quickly ran towards the knucklehead student and went to quick his shins to make him fall to the ground. However, Naruto reacted quickly to his rival's move and jumped up. Sasuke had to admit that he was quite impressed that Naruto had actually dodged an attack for once. Sasuke counteracted the Uzumaki's jump by sending a kick in the direction of his chest but once again Naruto reacted quickly once again and blocked the kick with his arms. Naruto landed on both his feet and smirked.

Naruto looked at his competitor with confidence and enthusiasm. This was because for the past month or so he had persuaded his mother to train him by asking her again and again...

"If not in ninjutsu or gentjutsu at least teach me in taijutsu mom!" Naruto groaned as he asked his mother to train him once again.

Kushina sighed. "Oh alright, if it will stop you asking again and again I guess I'll train you a little. But don't complain if you get hurt or if you find my methods too strict."

He remembered how much will power it took to convince Kushina he was ready to learn taijutsu from her -since he asked everyday and almost everyday he got the same reply of denial - and it had paid off because he hadn't been made to look like a total fool whilst battling Sasuke . Yet.

Not only was Sasuke surprised at Naruto not falling over the first hurdle but the whole class was, especially Iruka - he watched Naruto's moves closely after he dodged Sasuke's first attack.

Sasuke glared slightly at Naruto. Even though he was impressed that the fool had actually improved for once he didn't show it on his face. So he defended against 2 attacks. So far he hadn't shown that he can actually throw any attacks that could be of somewhat success.

Sasuke ran at his competitor once again. He threw punches at him again and again and again. Naruto struggled to keep up with Sasuke's speed and his constant attacks. The Uzumaki thought that if he only defended against his attacks and didn't attack back it would be certain that he would fail this match. Naruto found a slight opening and went to lunch Sasuke with his right fist.

However, Sasuke predicted that this would happen. He specifically allowed an opening for Naruto to try and attack to break his guard. Sasuke quickly ducked Naruto's obvious punch then punches Naruto in the stomach making him loose his balance as he was thrown back and collapsed on the floor.

Iruka ended the match when Naruto didn't get back on his feet after 10 seconds; The Uzumaki groaned and looked up at the sky. Even with his training he still couldn't beat the Uchiha he destined to catch up with one day

The blacked haired boy walked over to his defeated opponent and made the symbol of combat. "Hmph...nice try knucklehead." He gave naruto a slight smile as he looked down at him.

Naruto glared at his rival but couldn't help but show a smile on his face. "Hehe... Next time I'll beat you." Naruto also made the symbol of combat, connecting it with Sasuke's and slowly stood up.

Sasuke turned his back to the Uzumaki after he stood back up. "Not a chance. The battle lasted less than thirty seconds and you didn't land a single punch on me. There's no way you'll catch up with me."

Naruto gritted his teeth and glared at the back of Sasuke. "Gah. So what if I didn't land a punch on you. You only got one successful hit anyway. I know I'll catch up and beat you soon!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and sighed. "In your dreams, idiot." He began to walk away from the loser.

Naruto shook his head. " SASUKE ! I'm not the idiot you are!" And with that the couple of seconds of friendship the two rivals had quickly vanished.

Minato and Itachi had been watching the two pre-genin battle from a distance. They were both on top of the Hokage's Mansion as they watched the short conflict from start to end.

Minato chuckled gently. "Your brother seems to be skilled in taijutsu and even though he hasn't awaken the sharingan yet he still looks like he will become a powerful shinobi." He glanced over at Sasuke's brother.

Itachi nodded. "Yes it seems so. But your son has the will to never give up. Even though he hasn't won a battle yet he continues to train harder and harder so that one day he can win against Sasuke." He smiled at Naruto's father.

Minato smiled back at Itachi and turned to face him after the match had ended. "So have you decided if you want to continue being an anbu ninja or not?"

The Uchiha sighed and closed his eyes. "No I have not fully thought about it yet. Although I think it would be best if I at least took a break from it." He looked down at his brother walking away from Naruto. "There is many things I had to neglect whilst being an anbu, especially my brother. There was countless times I had to decline his invitations to play it train with him because I was just too busy." Itachi sighed and looked up at the sky as he smiled gently. "So I guess I should take a break from being an anbu for a while before my brother starts to truly hate me."

Minato looked at the Uchiha in awe. Could it be possible that Naruto could hate him for spending such little time with him just like Itachi does with his brother? Was there anyway he could prevent his son feeling that emotion towards him? Minato shook his head out of his own thoughts and smiled. "I respect your decision Itachi. Please, take as much time off as you'd like."

After a couple of hours Naruto walked out of the the academy consequently for it being the end of it being the end of another school day. He looked around, confused since his mother wasn't there, but then he found the Forth Hokage smiling at him.

"Dad! What are you doing here? Where's mom?" He cocked his head as he walked over to his father confused.

Minato chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "Well that's a kind way to greet your father." He smiled down at his son. "Well I'm here since I was wondering if you wanted to do some training before we went back home?"

Naruto's eyes widened. "Really dad? Y-you want to train me?" He slowly smiled. Excitement quickly flowed through him. The Forth Hokage was going to train him. One of the most powerful ninja in the village was going to train him.

Minato nodded and turned around. "Of course son. Now let's go. Follow me." And with that Minato began to walk towards the training grounds with his son.

Naruto's smile winded as he walked closer to the training ground with his father. Would he be learning Ninjutsu? Genjustu? Taijutsu? Whatever he was going to be taught, if the Hokage was going to train him then he could finally become strong enough to beat his rival Sasuke.


	10. Chapter 10: Fūinjutsu

Naruto looked up at his father with a face that only showed confusion. "Ehh? Fūinjutsu? What the heck is that? I thought there was only ninjustu, taijustu and genjutsu?"

Minato smiled gently towards his son as he answered his questions. "Those are the three main types on justu that ninja learn however, there are more types of jutsu such as Fūinjustu." Minato took out a scroll from a pouch attached to his waist and tossed it to Naruto."

Naruto caught the scroll and groaned. "Aww... Scroll reading? I thought you were going to teach me jutsu."

The Forth Hokage chuckled. "No Naruto. Using a scroll is a simple way of using fūinjustu." He took another scroll from his pouch then laid it down on the grass. He made a hand sign and smoke appeared from the scroll a split second after.

Naruto's eyes widened in amazement as he sees a one of the Forth Hokage's specially made kunais on top of the scroll. "Woahh how did you do that dad!?"

Minato grinned and crouched down to pick up the kunai "Fūinjustu cam be used to seal objects, organisms or even chakra. It is a powerful yet somewhat simple jutsu where the user only has to use a scroll to seal anything they want."

The yellow haired boy clenched his fists in excitement. "So you mean I could seal anything away with Fūinjustu!?" His mind was flooded with hundreds of ideas.

The Hokage thought for a second. "Well... The possibilities are almost endless. But Fūinjustu is affected by the amount of chakra the user has, their chakra control and their experience. To start off with you'll only be able to seal away a shuriken."

Naruto pouted when he received the information that most of his ideas weren't possible to seal. Yet. "Well... I guess that jutsu is kind of cool, ya know." Minato gave his child a warm smile then began training him the art of Fūinjustu.

The Forth Hokage had specifically chosen to teach his child sealing jutsu. This was because the child's mother belonged to the Uzumaki Clan. The Uzumaki Clan were known for their talent in sealing jutsu and Minato wanted to make sure that his wife's clan speciality didn't go extinct. He had many reasons for not wanting the Uzumaki Clan's talent to fade away but his main reason was becuase if it wasn't for the Fūinjustu he learnt from Kushina, he wouldn't have been able to successfully seal away the Nine Tails.

After a couple of hours, Naruto's stamina was almost completely drained. Even though Fūinjustu wasn't as physical as Taijutsu, it still required the user to have a great amount of endurance. This was the reason why many ninja chose not to learn it despite it being such a useful technique. Naruto lay down on the grass, breathing heavily, whilst looking up at the sky. He groaned slightly "I can't believe I couldn't even seal away a shuriken." He covered his face with his hands.

The Yellow Flash walked over to his son and sat down next to him. "Naruto... It can take some ninja several days before they're able to seal away something like a shuriken or a kunai. You did excellent for your first try, especially since you didn't even know it existed until only a few hours ago."

Naruto slightly grinned. "You think I did well?" He slowly sat up and got up onto his knees but almost straight away stumbled back down.

Minato caught him and chuckled. "You did amazing today." He slowly picked him up and began to carry him on his back as they walked back home.

Whilst Minato carried Naruto home, the child looked over to the Hokage faces. "Dad. Walked you told me that Fūinjustu is something that the Uzumaki Clan specialise in. So why not ask mom to teach it to me and not teach me something else?"

Minato looked up his child and smirked. "Oh? Are you saying that I'm a bad teacher?"

Naruto blushed a little and quickly shook his head. "No! Of course not. I was just curious, ya know."

Minato looked over at the sun that was setting. "Well... I guess it would be best if I taught you since your mother is very busy with teaching you taijutsu and caring for us both. Also, I've used Fūinjustu to combine jutsus together and I hope to one day teach you them. But first you need to learn the basics. And if I, someone who had no talent for learning Fūinjustu, I'm sure someone like you ,who's mother is part of the Uzumaki Clan, can learn the art of sealing much faster than I did and also create your own, unique jutsu's with it."

Naruto smiled widely. "You really think I could create my own jutsu's dad?"

Minato replied with a nod and chuckled. "Of course. You are my son after all." As he finished his sentance, the two of them arrived back home.

Several days passed since Naruto started his training with Minato. Every day after school Naruto would go to the training field to practice his technique. He started off by only being able to seal away a few blades of grass. But as he continued to train, he eventually sealed away larger objects such as bugs and pencils. When Kushina found out about Naruto learning Fūinjustu she was a little annoyed to say the least:

"Naruto isn't even a ninja yet. He should be playing in parks with his classmates, not training each day until he almost passes out!" Kushina glared at her husband.

Minato scratched the back of his hair. "K-kushina, I only teach Naruto at this age because some day in the future he could be in danger because he's the Hokage's son and he's also a Jinjuriki. Now I've tried to reduce the amount of danger by having Naruto's last name as 'Uzumaki' and by only allowing selected people knowing he is a Jinjuriki but we can never be too cautious."

Kushina sighed and crossed her arms. "Very well... But if he goes to hospital becuase of your training you're going to be in serious trouble Minato."

Naruto panted heavily. He was kneeling down next to a shuriken on top of a scroll on the grass. "One... One more try." Naruto made some hand signs and the shuriken was slowly swallowed by the scroll. His eyes widened in amazement when the shuriken had completely disappeared. The Uzumaki jumped up and pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! It finally worked! Did you see that dad?" Naruto looked around him but couldn't see Minato anywhere.

"Great job son." Minato grinned as Naruto slowly looked up to see his dad standing on top of a tree. Before Naruto could ask his father why he was up there, Minato opened his mouth. "Your next goal in this:" Minato made some hand signs and used Fūinjustu to seal away the tree he was standing on.

Naruto collapsed on the floor after seeing how his father performed the seal so effortlessly. "Please say you're kidding right?"

Minato laughed. "Of course. I wouldn't have something so extreme as your next target. Your next target is to seal away a scroll and a kunai. You'll need to concentrate more whilst trying to seal them away since they're heavier than a shuriken and they're two completely different objects." Minato helped his child up. "I hope you're not too tired. You're mother is waiting at Ichiraku's for us to celebrate your victory."

Naruto's eyes widened in amazement and confusion. "But... How did she know I would succeed today?"

Minato smiled and began to walk with his child. "Well... Your mother has some kind of talent for predicting these kind of things." They both chuckled and walked to Ichirakus Ramen.

At that very same moment, hundreds of miles away, four rouge ninjas were walking through the rain with hats covering their faces. When they got to one of their many hideouts they would chose who to choose next to join them and what to call their organisation.

The rouge ninja with the mask smirked and thought to them self: 'two of the seven ninja swordsmen and a skilled puppet master. Our group of rouge ninja continues to grow stronger and stronger with each new member...'

* * *

 **Authors Note: I'll attempt to write longer chapters from now on. You're ideas and constructive criticism are always appreciated.**

 **Thank you all for the reviews so far. They have inspired to continue with this story ^-^**


	11. Chapter 11: Final Exam

The Forth Hokage's child trained day in and day out in the art or fūinjutsu,getting slowly but surely better in the sealing jutsu, until he found out big news from Iruka. Naruto felt a mixture of excitement and fear when he heard his Sensei told him that the final exams were coming up in a month and it would determine if each individual would pass and become a genin or fail and stay in the academy. He felt excitement because if he graduated, he could become a real ninja and go on real missions. But he felt fear as well becuase he was almost one hundred percent certain that you would need to use ninjutsu to pass in the final exam. It was only a week before the final exam that his fear and fate were unavoidable.

Iruka cleared his throat to try and get the attention of the class. "Alright everyone settle down. I'll now explain the details of the exam next week." Everyone fell silent. "To pass the exam and go on the road to becoming a genin, you must be able to create three perfect shadow clones. This is the objective becuase it clearly shows if you can perfect the first stage of chakra control and it also shows that you're able to perform basic jutsu that a ninja should be able to perform. If you fail this exam you will stay in the academy until the next exam comes."

Naruto slammed his head against the table and everyone looked over at him as he did so. Why? Why did it have to be ninjutsu? If if were taijutsu he would have at least have a chance of passing.

After Iruka finished the details, the end of the academy day appeared. As soon as it did, the yellow haired pre-genin rushed towards the training filed and rested against a tree. He closed his eyes as he tried to think of a way to pass this final exam.

He could use fūinjustu to seal away three shadow clones before the exam and then release them for the exam. No. He couldn't seal away that amount of mass or volume into a scroll, he hadn't learnt that level of sealing yet, and there's the problem of making the shadow clones in the first place. He could try to convince three people to use a transformation technique to make them look like himself. No. Iruka would probably want proof that the three were shadow clones.

Naruto slowly slumped down onto the ground and groaned. "Why the hell does it have to be shadow clones! I bet he chose that jutsu to mock me!"

A ninja heard Naruto's complaints and slowly walked in his direction. "Hey kiddo. What the heck are you whining about?"

The Uzumaki glanced up at the ninja and glared slightly. "What do you want?" He kicked his foot into the ground.

The ninja chuckled and adjusted his goggles which made the sun deflect off them. "Woah. What's with the attitude. Usually you're excited to see me."

The yellow haired boy sighed gently and looked down at the dirt. "Yeah... Well not today, Obito."

Obito sat down close to the pre-genin and rested against the tree stump. "Care to explain?"

Naruto looked up at the Uchiha and debated if to tell him or not, but in the end he did. He explained the whole story about the final exam and his curse of never learning ninjutsu correctly. "... And so I'm going to fail the exam and all my classmates will pass, leaving me behind in the dirt."

The chunin that sat next to be complaining boy smiled slightly and looked up at the sky as he felt nostalgic. "The shadow clone technique? They still use that for the final exam?" He slowly stood up and smiled down at the child. "Well show me you making shadow clones. I'm positive that they won't be the worst I've seen."

Naruto slowly for onto his feet, feeling slightly confident with his own ability now. He smirked slightly as he made a couple of hand signs. "Shadow clone jutsu!" A cloud of white smoke appeared. As the smoke disappeared, a pale, strange looking version of the Uzumaki appeared. It didn't last more than two seconds before falling down onto the grass.

Obito stared at the shadow clone in shock. As soon as it disappeared into a cloud of smoke, he fell to the floor and burst out laughing. "Are you serious!? You have to be joking. The Forth Hokage's son makes a shadow clone like that?"

Naruto clenched his fists. "Shut the hell up! I try and try but I can never succeed in ninjutsu, ya know!"

The Uchiha slowly sat up and lifted his goggles up to wipe his eyes. "Alright, alright. I was just joking." He sighed and couldn't keep himself grinning despite his words. "I used to be terrible at making shadow clones as well. In fact, I just barely passed the final exam when I was in the academy so..." He slowly stood up. "If you want I'll try my best to help you out."

The Forth Hokage's son pouted and turned around so he was facing away from Obito. He crossed his arms and smirked. "No thanks. I don't want help from a chunin." He waved his hand and glanced behind him. "Besides, I'm sure Kakashi or Rin would be much better at helping me."

It was Obito's turn to clench his fists and get pissed at the other person's comments. "Hey! I'm almost a jonin. And I'm so much better at the shadow clone technique then Kakashi!" He purposely left Rin's name out.

As Naruto listened to Obito he chuckled and slowly turned around. "How can you be better if you 'barely' passed the final exam?"

The two boys looked each other in the eyes. Obito slowly smirked. "Because I had to train much more than Kakashi to even pass the exam. So I know the jutsu inside and out."

Naruto sighed. He had enough of mocking his friend. "Well... I guess that's a fair point. Alright then, master at the shadow clone technique, teach me how to perfect the jutsu."

The Uchiha chuckled and gave Naruto a thumbs up. "Sure thing!"

After about a hour of training, the Uzumaki was exhausted. He had drained himself of most of his chakra and was laying down on the grass whilst looking up to the sky. Obito was sat against a tree stump and shook his head gently. "Well...you were right. You do suck at creating shadow clones. And your chakra control is terrible even though Minato Sensei OS teaching you fūinjustu."

Naruto glared at Obito, as if trying to shoot daggers at him. "Well... I'm getting better. I mean, I can actually create a proper shadow clone now." He slowly sat up and leant on his right arm. "And if you keep training me until the day before the exam I'm sure that I'll be able to create three."

Obito put his hand up to stop Naruto talking. "I'm really sorry Naruto but I've got a mission tomorrow. And it's a mission outside the village that is at least going to take a week to finish."

The hope in the Naruto's eyes slowly went. "But..." He looked down to the grass.

Obito put his hand on his head and ruffled his yellow hair. "Don't worry, I'm sure that you'll be able to perfect the shadow clone technique if you keep on training each day."

The Uzumaki pouted but eventually he couldn't help but smile. "Thank you Obito. I'll train every day and by the time you get back I'll be able to create 100 clones at once!"

Obito laughed and shook his head. "Alright kid. If you can do that I'll pay for all the ramen you want for a whole week. That's a promise."

A week went past and it only felt like a day to Naruto. He was waiting outside the room that would decide if he were suitable to become a genin or stay as a student at the academy. He sighed gently, leaning against the wall whilst he waited for his turn to show off his skill.

Sasuke slowly walked out of the room and smirked when he saw Naruto. "Good luck in there Naruto" he walked down the corridor with his hands hidden in his pockets.

Naruto cocked his head as he was unable to tell if that was support or mockery. He hadn't had even a second to chose before he heard: "Uzumaki Naruto. Enter."

Naruto took a deep breath and slowly walked into the room that would determine his fate. He noticed Iruka and Mizuki sitting next to a desk. The Uzumaki gulped as he stood around 10 feet from the desk.

Iruka nodded at Iruka. "Alright Naruto you know what you need to do to pass: create three identical shadow clones."

Naruto smirked and nodded. He made some hand signs as he summoned an immense amount of chakra. He closed his eyes then opened them wide. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"


	12. Chapter 12: The Scroll

Naruto took a deep breath and slowly walked into the room that would determine his fate. He noticed Iruka and Mizuki sitting next to a desk. The Uzumaki gulped as he stood around 10 feet from the desk.

Iruka nodded at Iruka. "Alright Naruto you know what you need to do to pass: create three identical shadow clones."

Naruto smirked and nodded. He made some hand signs as he summoned an immense amount of chakra. He closed his eyes. them wide. "SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

A large amount of white smoke surrounded Naruto as he used the shadow clone jutsu. He used up almost all his chakra in this one jutsu, pushing himself to the edge of his abilities in attempt to pass the exam.

Iruka's eyes widened in shock as he saw an identical shadow clone appear from the slowly disappearing smoke. "Naruto you..." His amazement was quickly changed into disappointment as the other two clones emerged from the cloud of smoke and fell to the ground.

Naruto's smirk was still plastered on his face as he looked at his successful clone until he slowly looked down at the two failed clones. His eyes widen in horror. "N-no! This still counts right Iruka-sensei? I still made three shadow clones."

Mizuki glanced at all of the three clones then turned his attention towards Iruka. "Naruto is right Iruka. He still managed to make three shadow clones so I could count as a pass."

Iruka shook his head in reply to both Naruto and Mizuki. "No." He crossed his arms. "But the exam specifically states that to pass you need to create three IDENTICAL shadow clones. Naruto only made one that was identical."

Naruto's Sensei looked down at the child's disappointed face. "I'm sorry Naruto, I really do want to pass you however I can't. It wouldn't be fair on the others in the academy. Also, it could consequently lead to your life being in danger if you were put on missions and you weren't ready to be a Genin yet."

Naruto sighed. He had trained so much for this moment and he didn't even get a pass. He looked to the ground. "I understand..." He slid his hands into his pockets and walked out of the room.

Naruto gently swung on the swing close to the academy as he looked at all of his classmates who had all graduated. He gently kicked the ground with his shoe. "It's not fair... I trained as hard as anyone else that passed..."

Naruto noticed his mother walking into the academy grounds. He quickly got off the swing and put on a fake smile as his mother found him and walked over to him. "H-hey mom."

The red haired mother grinned widely and crouched down to her son. "So... Is my baby boy a genin now?"

Naruto blushed slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah of course I am mom... I passed. I made three identical shadow clones." He swallowed hard as he lied through his teeth.

Kushina picked up her child and gave him a big warm hug. "Ohh I'm so proud of you naruto! I just knew you would pass!" She looked at him a little confused. "But where's your ninja headband?"

The yellow haired Uzamaki's eyes widened as he quickly thought up of another lie. "O-oh I'm getting it later. Iruka Sensei is getting me ramen in a few minutes then giving me my headband since he's so proud of me... Heheh."

Kushina smiled warmly and carefully placed Naruto back on the floor. "Oh, I see. Well I'll let you go get your ramen" she winks. "But don't be out to long. I have a feeling your father will be home early to celebrate that you're finally a real ninja."

Naruto nodded and quickly ran off. "Yeah. Seeya later mom." He ran behind the academy building and sighed gently as he slumped against the wall and looked down to the ground.

"Uhmm...N-Naruto-kun?" Naruto was slightly startled by the soft timid voice. He slowly looked up at the owner of the voice.

"Oh hey Hinata. What's up?" He put on his fake smile again.

Hinata's face became hot whilst she pushed her fingers together. "Did... Did you pass the exam Naruto-kun?"

Naruto closed his eyes. "Well..." He looked back into Hinata's eyes and chuckled. "Of course I did! That exam was so easy that you shouldn't have to ask if I passed or not."

The Hyuga smiled at the Uzamaki's confidence. "Y-yes of course I knew that you passed." She swallowed hard as her face flushes crimson red. "M-maybe we'll be on the same team."

Naruto scratched the back of his head and looked down to the ground with a soft smile on his face. "Yeah, we'll find out I guess."

Hinata nodded and looked down to the ground as well. "Yes, I guess s-" The Hyuga stopped her sentance when she heard her father calling for her. She sighed gently and gave Naruto a warm smile. "Sorry, I have to go now. I'll s-see you again soon Naruto-kun." She waved at her crush before she slowly walked off.

"Yeah seeya soon Hinata..." Naruto smiled back at her as she walked off. He shook his head gently "dammit... Mom and dad are going to be mad when they find out I've lied and Hinata will be disappointed."

When Naruto was sure that Hinata and Kushina were no longer close to the academy he slowly walked away. He looked down to the dirt and had his hands in his pockets whilst he walked. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going and bumped into a ninja. "Gahh...I'm sorry I didn't see you." Naruto slowly looked up at the ninja.

The ninja Naruto had walked into was no other than Mizuki. Naruto's eyes widened. "Mizuki Sensei!?"

Mizuki looked down at the Uzumaki and smiled gently. "Hey Naruto. I was looking for you. Let's have a chat."

Mizuki lead Naruto to a bench and they both sat down. The ninja looked down at the student and smiled. "You know that Iruka is very serious and strict, he is always making sure his student's work hard and make sure they're disciplined right." He looked up at the sky. "He's just making sure that you're strong enough before you become a ninja, even if it means you have to stay in the academy a while longer."

Naruto glanced at Mizuki then clenched his fists. "But...I really wanted to graduate. I tried to hard. I've been training everyday since I found out about the final exam." The child stood up, ready to walk away.

Mizuki smirked slightly. "However Naruto, there is one other way to pass and since you were so close to graduating I think you should know about it."

Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he heard what came out of Mizuki's mouth. "Another way? What is it!?"

The shinobi slowly stood up and chuckled. "There is a scroll in the Hokage's mansion that contains a jutsu similar to the shadow clone jutsu. If you are able to master it then Iruka will know that you're ready to become a genin."

Naruto's eyes widened more and more. Why hadn't his father told him about this scroll that what mean that he could have used to passed the exam.

He glanced over at the Hokage's mansion and remembered what his mother said earlier: "I have a feeling your father will be home early to celebrate that you're finally a real ninja."

This would mean that obtaining the scroll would be so much easier with his father out of the way.

Mizuki saw the expression on Naruto's face and knew he had made up his mind. He smirked gently and stretched. "Alright. Meet me in the forest in three hours with the scroll." He pointed in the direction of the forest. "I'll help you learn the jutsu there. But don't tell the Hokage or anyone. Let it be a surprise for everyone when they find out you've learnt a new technique."

A hour after Mizuki's encounter with Naruto, Minato had finished his work early just like Kushina had said he would. He and his wife were walking through the village.

Minato sighed. It had been a long and stressful week. He had recently discovered that at least one of the ninja from, the group that attacked Kakashi and the other two anbu, was from the Hidden Sand. This proved that this wasn't just a rouge ninja group from the Hidden Mist but it was a group of rouge ninjas from multiple villages. The Forth Hokage was glad that he could finally relax and spend time with his child and wife.

As the husband and wife turned the corner, they saw Iruka. Kushina smiled widely as they saw him. "Hey Iruka!" She looked around the teacher and frowned a little. "Where's Naruto? I would have thought you two would have finished eating ramen by now.

Iruka looked at the two completely confused. " Naruto? Ramen? What are you talking about? I never said to Naruto that I was going to go to Ichiraku's or anything."

Kushina looked back at Iruka as if he were crazy. "What? Naruto told me that you and him were getting ramen to celebrate him becoming a genin."

Iruka scratched the back of his head. "Uhmm I'm sorry Kushina but Naruto isn't a genin... He failed the test."

Kushina clenched her fists. "That kid... I'm going to kill him for lying to me not once...but twice." Even though Kushina only showed anger, she was also feeling slight fear for where her child could be.

To make Kushina's fear worse, an anbu showed up behind Minato. "Hokage. Some one has broke into the Hokage's mansion and stolen a forbidden scroll. By the looks of the place the individual must have been in a rush to find it and leave because there's scrolls all over the floor.

Minato nodded gently. " Alright. Get two other anbu and then the three of you start looking for that lost scroll." The anbu nodded and quickly disappeared.

When Minato and Kushina replaced their attention on Iruka they noticed that he was gone. "Where...has Iruka gone?" Kushina sighed.

Minato sighed as well and chuckled slightly. "Well it looks like we're not going to get a relaxing evening afterall." He frowned and looked down at his red haired wife. "Kushina. You go search for Naruto. I'll start looking for him as well after I see what's happened in the Hokage's Mansion."

Kushina nodded at her husband and the both of them went in different directions.

The group of rouge ninjas that had attacked the three anbu several ninjas were in the middle of a meeting in one of the many hideouts whilst the small panic was occuring in the Leaf Village. The current hideout that they were in was one of the most difficult to find and enter. The entrance was covered by a gigantic boulder and the only way to open it was to release to five sealing tags, that were spread out across a wide area, simultaneously.

The member of the group that was hidden behind a puppet slowly looked up at the three other ninja. "Looks like my plan is already taking place in the Leaf Village. Soon we will receive infromation about the Forth Hokage and his son who has the Nine Tails sealed up inside of him."

The ninja with the masked face smirked gently. "Oh? So you've confirmed that it's the Hokage's son who has the Nine Tails in his possession?"

The puppet master nodded back to his leader. "That is correct. A cocky yellow-haired child that goes by the name Naruto Uzumaki."


	13. Chapter 13: Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu

Naruto arrived in the forest just over a hour ealier than Mizuki had told him to meet at. He chuckled gently. "Well I might as well get a head start on learning this new technique..." The Uzumaki slumped down next to a tree and carefully opened the scroll.

The child's eyes widened in a mixture of disappointment and disgust when he saw the contents of the scroll. "Are you kidding me Mizuki!? This is just the shadow clone technique." He squinted his eyes as he scanned through the scroll again. "Hmmm...oh wait. This is just a jutsu similar to the shadow clone technique." He chuckled and began to learn the forbidden technique.

Naruto quickly learnt that to use the forbidden technique you only had to use one unique hand sign. However, the foolish child did not learn the risks of using the jutsu. He did not know that the reason this jutsu was forbidden was because if the user didn't have enough chakra, he or she would die. Luckily for Naruto he had a large amount of chakra on top of the chakra that was in possession of the beast inside of him.

The yellow haired child trained as hard as he could with barely any breaks in between the crucial hour. He sat down on the grass and sighed gently. "I-I better rest up for now until Mizuki turns up." He laid down on the lush green grass whilst he watched the sky turn a blood red as the sun began to set.

The academy student was to focused on regaining his strength and looking up at the darkening sky through the gaps ,between to trees , that he forgot to use his scent of hearing to listen for Mizuki arriving. "Naruto? What are you doing?"

Naruto quickly jumped up. "Oh Mizuki! I was just resting waiting for you to sh-..." He slowly turned around and realised who was behind him. "Iruka Sensei? What are you doing here?"

Iruka sighed. "I asked first Naruto." He noticed the scroll down at Naruto's feet. "What's that Naruto?" His eyes widened as he put two and two together. "Oh don't tell me that you're the one who stole that from the Hokage's Mansion... Why!?"

The Uzumaki pouted. "I didn't steal it. I'm just borrowing it for a while. Mizuki told me that there was another way to pass your stupid test and that the awnser was in this scroll."

The teacher glared at his pupil. "Naruto you've been lying all day. To your mother and now to me. Mizuki would never say anything like that, not even for a joke." He sighed and crossed his arms. "I know you're annoyed because you didn't pass but that doesn't give you the right to lie to your mother and mess up whatever room in the Hokage's Mansion you found this in."

Naruto was about to defend himself however, they both heard someone land on a tree branch behind them. "I'm afraid the kid isn't lying Iruka. I really did tell him to get that scroll."

Iruka's eyes widened in shock and he quickly turned his body around. "M-Mizuki?! You did? But why would you do such a thing?"

Mizuki chuckled and shook his head. "Isn't it obvious? It's a simple way of getting a forbidden scroll from the village. Tell the Hokage's Son that he can pass the exam if he brings me a forbidden scroll from the Hokage's Mansion. He would be allowed automatic entrance since he's the son of the Hokage." He crouched down on the tree branch. "Now Naruto. It's time for you to give me that scroll."

Naruto slowly picked up the scroll. But instead of passing it to Mizuki, he gritted his teeth and held onto it tightly. "You never told me that this scroll was forbidden. Are you telling me that there isn't another way of passing the final exam?"

Mizuki laughed. "I'm surprised that even someone like you believed that idiotic lie straight away. Of course there isn't another way to pass. Look Naruto, just becuase your the Hokage's Son doesn't mean you'll get a automatic pass to becoming the next Hokage."

Iruka glared at the other shinobi. "Mizuki? Why did you want the scroll. It doesn't make any sence."

A sadistic grin appeared on Mizuki's face. "Oh my reason? It was so the child would die from draining his chakra and the nine tails would be released." He glanced at Naruto's confused look. "Oh didn't your father ever tell you? The reason everyone is secretly frightened of you? The reason Iruka is especially strict on you? The reason you'll never become a nin-"

Mizuki was stopped mid sentance by Iruka. "Mizuki no! Shut your mouth!" He grabbed a shuriken and hurled it at Mizuki.

Whilst the shuriken was in mid air, Mizuki caught it before it could hurt him. He smirked and shook his head. "Naruto. Let me tell you what everyone else is to scared to tell you. You have a monster inside of you. A monster that attacked the village when you were born. That monster killed Iruka's parents who tired their best to stop the monster from attacking the village." He shook his head whilst the sickening smirk was stuck on his face. "That murderous monster is inside you and the people of the village have seen you as a monster, a cures to the shinobi world, since the day you were born."

The Uzumaki shook his head and gritted his teeth, trying to block himself from what he was hearing. "No your lying. That's impossible. Someone like my mother or father would have told me if it were true."

Mizuki laughed at the child's attempt to throw away the newly learnt truth. "Well of course no one told you, they're too scared that if you leant the truth that there's the possibility you would let your emotions get the better of you and let the nine tails out."

The shinobi's emotion turned from amusement to disgust. "That's the whole reason the villager's treat you so differently. All of them are truly scared that if they do something wrong to you that you would unleash the wrath of the monster inside of you." Mizuki closed one eye as he aimed to shuriken at Naruto's heart. "YOU'RE BETTER OF DEAD MONSTER" He threw the shuriken, aiming directly for the child's heart.

"Naruto!" Iruka shouted at his pupil as he hurled himself in the direction of the shuriken. His eyes widened in shock as he knew he wouldn't be able to get in line with the path of the shiruken to shield the Uzumaki.

However, the shuriken did not kill Naruto, it didn't even harm him. Instead the shuriken penetrated the bark of the tree; the Uzumaki had fled through the forest with the Hidden scroll.

Mizuki gritted his teeth but the smirk slowly reappeared on his face as soon as he started to chase the Hokage's Son through the forest.

Iruka got back onto his fast as fast as he could. "Naruto... Please stay safe until I catch up with you..." He didn't bother brushing the dirt of him and straight away followed after his student and Mizuki.

Naruto had stopped fleeing through the forest when he was certain that Mizuki nor Iruka were close behind him. He slumped down onto the dirt whilst keeping a tight grip on the scroll. He watched and heard the trees around him dance with the wind.

"I have... A monster inside of me?" The child quietly whispered. "That's... Impossible. Right?" He sighed gently. "Yet it would explain so much, especially why everyone seems to act odd around me... Just like Mizuki said." Naruto began to think back to a memory when he had first joined the academy...:

 **Itachi looked back down at Naruto and smiled once again. "I hope you and Sasuke become good friends at the academy."**

 **Naruto smiled widely when he heard the word 'friend'. "Yeah I'm sure we will!"**

 **Sasuke looked at Naruto up and down. "Hmph..." He slowly walked over to where the other children were getting ready to enter the classrooms.**

 **Naruto walked after for him. "Hey wait for me, ya know!" As the Uzumaki followed after his soon to be classmate, he accidentally bumped into two women. "Ermm... Sorry about that heheh..."**

 **Whilst the Uzumaki continued to walk to the other children, the two women talked to each other in a voice just louder than a whisper. "Hey. Isn't that the Hokage's child? The child with the nine tails sealed inside of him? Surely they're not going to let him become a ninja."**

 **The other woman agreed with her. "They're probably just letting him into the academy so he can feel somewhat normal, I doubt they'll let him pass." She put a finger up to her lip. "Besides, we're not supposed to talk about that... Not in public anyway."**

 **Naruto eavesdropped almost the full conversation. Well, he only began to listen when she said 'the child with the nine tails.' . Naruto looked around at the other children, trying to figure out who the two women were talking about. He cancelled himself out straight away since he believed it was impossible that they were talking about him.**

"So it was me those women were talking about that day." He held onto the scroll tighter. "And the monster goes by the name 'nine tails' I suppose." His eyes began to water. "But how and why is such a thing inside of me?"

Whilst Natuto began to question the monsters existence inside of him, a ninja landed on a tree branch about 20 feet away from him. That ninja was none other than the yellow flash. 'So it was Naruto afterall who stole the scroll. But why? Was he trying to find a scroll to train his fūinjutsu?' Minato thought to himself and was about to go down to talk to his son until he heard a rustling in a bush close to Naruto

Minato prepared himself to attack whoever appeared from the bush. However, he let his defence down when he saw Mizuki appear. 'Mizuki? What's he doing here? Did Iruka tell him that Naruto had gone missing?'

Mizuki smirked when he saw Naruto sitting down, leaning against a tree. "Here you are, nine tails brat."

Naruto's eyes widened and he quickly got back onto his feet. "Mizuki... Y-you're not getting this scroll, ya know."

Mizuki chuckled and shook his head. "Oh you don't have to give me the scroll child. I could kill you instead and allow the monster inside you to rampage through the village, killing everyone you love." He then quickly grabbed a scroll and opened it. He formed a hand sign and a poof of smoke surrounded most of Mizuki's body.

What appeared from the scroll made the eyes of Naruto widen in amazement but also fear. A gigantic shuriken appeared. The hollow circle in the centre was about the same diameter of one average sized shuriken point to another. Mizuki smirked and held onto the weapon tightly. "So Naruto. What do you value more? That pathetic scroll or the lives of the people you love and care about."

Naruto sighed and loosened his grip on the scroll. "Alright then...here you go." He tossed the scroll over to the ninja in defeat.

Mizuki chuckled and grabbed the forbidden scroll. "Wise decision Naruto." He began to walk away with the shuriken in one hand and the scroll in the other.

Minato squinted a little. Mizuki wasn't acting the way he normally does - as if he were under a genjutsu - but it was his eyes that made Minato worry the most. His eyes were full of murderous intent. The Yellow Flash quickly threw a kunai at Mizuki. He did this not to kill him but to injure Mizuki and stop what ever he was planning because what ever it was, it was surely evil.

Mizuki stopped walking. "On second thought..." He smirked and thew the shuriken towards Minato a split second after he threw his kunai. This made the kunai helplessly fall to the ground whilst the shuriken was still coming closer and closer to Minato.

He had no choice, Minato had to quickly jump out the way to avoid contact with the weapon. Whilst Minato was distracted by the shuriken, Mizuki got out another scroll and released another shuriken, identical to the other.

When The Hokage finally set his eyes on the new weapon, it was too late. The shuriken was hurdling towards his son and it was impossible for him to stop it. Minato watched in horror the spinning death that was going directly to his son's heart.

The shuriken made contact with flesh. However, it did not penetrate the chest, it penetrated the back. It also did not even touch Naruto, in fact , it hit into another ninja. The ninja groaned in pain as he stood in front of the child to protect his life.

"I-Iruka!" Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he saw his Sensei in front of him. His eyes water a little. "W-why did you just protect me? You hate me like everyone else."

"I... Don't hate you Naruto..." As the liquid filled with sadness rolled down Iruka's face, he looked down at Naruto. "Yes I may hate the Nine Tails for killing my parents but I don't hate you. Yes, I was strict on you but only because I wanted to make sure that you were fully ready to become a ninja."

As the drips of blood from Iruka's injury fell to the ground, he slowly smiled at his pupil. "I could never live with myself if I let you become a ninja and then go into a situation of serious danger knowing that I let you become a ninja when you were not fully prepared to become one."

Mizuki slowly walked up to Iruka and pulled the shuriken out of his wound, making Iruka grit his teeth to stop the sound of pain escape him. Mizuki chuckled and shook his head. "Iruka. Why tell the child all of this crap? Surely you know that it will just degrade him even more."

The sadistic ninja smirked at the wounded Sensei. "Goodbye Iruka. If you didn't bother protecting the monster then you wouldn't have to join your parents so early " Mizuki held onto the shuriken tightly and aimed one of the points towards the back of Iruka's head.

Before Mizuki got the chance to dig the shiruken into the back of Iruka's head, a cloud of pure white smoke submerged the three ninjas. Mizuki quickly jumped backwards to get out of the smoke as he thought to himself: 'What was that? A smoke grenade or something?'

A figure began to run out of the cloud of gas. Mizuki smirked, quickly identifying the figure as Naruto. "Where the hell did you get smoke grenades kid?" He threw the shiruken into the smoke before the figure had the opportunity to reveal itself.

As soon as the figure disappeared, another one appeared close to the one that had been attacked by the shiruken. 'What!? There's no way that my shiruken missed that brat.' Naruto emerged from the smoke and hurled himself towards Mizuki.

Mizuki laughed and kicked the child in the stomach, making him fall back a few yards. "Did you really think that you could defeat me with a pathetic punch." As Naruto hit against a tree from the force of the kick, he disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Before Mizuki had the chance to react, he noticed to smoke had disappeared from where Iruka was at.

Iruka looked around in amazement and shock. "Naruto... How did you-"

Minato stopped himself from going to attack Mizuki when he saw what had been uncovered from the smoke. "Naruto..." He stood on a branch, waiting to see what would happen next and if he'd need to join in.

There was about 30 identical clones of the Uzumaki now surrounding Mizuki. Mizuki gulped and gritted his teeth. "When did that brat get so good at genjutsu...?"

The original Naruto smirked. "Oh. I'm terrible at genjutsu. This is ninjutsu. It's called the multiple shadow clone jutsu." He looked at Iruka. "I hope that 30 is enough to pass the final exam and if you don't believe that this is just an illusion, I'll prove to you that they're all real clones."

Mizuki's eyes widened in shock as he watched all the clones run at him. "Oh fu-"

The puppet master of the rouge ninja group slowly opened his eyes from his concentrated state. "Hmph... Something's not right."

The masked ninja was standing close to the puppet master. He looked down at him and frowned gently. "What is wrong Sasori?"

The puppet master, Sasori, looked up at his leader. "My spy should be done with his task by now and sending us the information about the leaf however, I scene that he has gotten himself into some trouble."

One of the swordsmen chuckled. "Well maybe we should go over to the Leaf and get the information ourselves."

"The Akatsuki does not do tasks such as this one without preparation in advance. Besides, it would take quite a while to travel all the way to the Leaf Village." The masked man crossed his arms. "How long do you think it'll be until we get the information Sasori?"

Sasori looked up at the leader of the organisation. "I have no idea but he better not take too long... I hate waiting..."

* * *

 **Authors Note: Well I've finally began to write longer chapters. I hope you liked this chapter and future chapters. Thank you all for the support from the beginning to now ^^**


	14. Chapter 14: The Akatsuki Spy

Whilst the shadow clones ran towards Mizuki, his eyes were rapidly moving from place to place since they were all coming from various angles. After about a minute of constant dodging and obliterating the clones that came close to him, Mizuki understood that time was his worst enemy in this battle; a jutsu with a huge range of damage or distracting would be his best bet of winning or escaping this battle.

'About 20 still left...' Mizuki made this mental note after quickly scanning his view for how many shadow clones were left. 'I haven't got enough time between each of them attacking for me to perform a jutsu of usefulness.'

Mizuki grabbed hold of a shadow clone that attempted to attack him and hurled him towards a tree. 'Hmph... I guess I'll have to use what HE gave me.' Mizuki grabbed hold of one of the three spherical objects in his pouts however, in his hastiness, he dropped one of the objects.

'Great... Now I only have two chances of diversions left.' Mizuki began to run in the opposite direction of Naruto, the clones and Iruka to give him self some time to create the diversion. He forcefully threw the object down onto the ground and it exploded into a thick cloud of purple gas.

Minato saw the smoke from the branch of the tree. His eyes slowly narrowed. 'Purple smoke? Is it possible that it's... No!' He quickly jumped down towards the newly emerged gas.

Naruto and his clones were running straight to the cloud of gas. "You can't hide in that gas Mizuki! One of will find you." He was about to make contact was the purple substance before he heard something hit the ground and a flash of light grabbed hold of him.

The Uzumaki was carried over to Iruka. "What the hell are you doing here?! I was just about to defeat him so why did you stop me?" Naruto looked up at The Yellow Flash in a mixture of anger and surprise.

The Hokage glanced down at his child. "Look over at the gas." Every single shadow clone had ran into the gas foolishly. None of them lasted more than 5 seconds in the purple substance. "That is poisonous gas. If you had breathed in in you would been in hospital for quite a few days. It's possible that even it coming into contact with your skin could have been fatal. "

"Oh... Heheh." Naruto chuckled gently and rubbed the back of his head. The smoke slowly began to diffuse in the atmosphere. "But what about Mizuki? Are you just going to let him escape?"

Minato gently shook his head. "No of course not. I'll go after him." He put a hand on his child's shoulder. "I know that you want to defeat him but as your father and the Hokage I ask you for a favour. Naruto, please help Iruka to the hospital and I'll meet you two there soon."

"... Alright dad" Naruto smiled a toothy grin. Minato nodded and smiled then disappeared into thin air in a flash.

Naruto and Iruka slowly walked out of forest and headed to the hospital. Naruto had helped Iruka warp a bandage around the wound his injury in attempt to suppress it and reduce the amount of blood that was being lost.

The Uzumaki slowly looked up towards the moon and sighed gently. "I'm sorry. That wound was my fault. But I'm glad that you came when you did. It was possible that you saved my life, ya know."

Iruka smiled slightly weakly. "I'm glad I came when I did as well. Oh, I've got a gift for you as well."

Naruto cocked his head. "Shouldn't I be the one who's giving you a gift for saving my life?"

"Well, you saved my life when using that jutsu so they cancel each other out." Iruka slowly loosened his ninja headband and handed it out to Naruto. "You've shown that you can produce at least ten times the amount of shadow clones that you need to pass the exam. I think that and learning a jutsu in such a short period of time shows your more than capable of becoming a genin."

Naruto's eyes widened and he stopped walking. He stared down at the headband and swallowed hard. "S-so what are you saying?"

Iruka sighed and smiled. "I'm saying that this one time I'll make an exception and allow you to pass the final exam. Naruto Uzumaki, you are now a genin. Please, take this headband."

The faint light from the slowly emerging night sky reflected against the metal. Naruto smiled widely and slowly took the headband and hold it close to him as the two of them walked through the doors of the hospital.

Mizuki hid behind a tree and gritted his teeth. 'Crap. Out of all the ninja that I had to attacked by it had to be The Yellow Flash. At this point I won't be able to sent the information back to-' His thoughts were brought to a halt when he sensed Minato's presence once again. He quickly dropped a scroll onto the floor and grabbed hold of a kunai.

Minato suddenly jumped towards Mizuki from behind where he was hiding and hit his kunai against Mizuki's with so much force that Mizuki was unable to to keep hold of his own.

'He's not acting the way he usually does.' Minato thought to himself. ''His reaction speed is never this fast and his attitude contrasts with what it's normally like. Is it possible that he's under some genjutsu?'

Whatever had happened to Mizuki, Minato couldn't take any more time trying to figure it out. He began to use a set of hand signs for a fūinjutsu technique.

Mizuki watched the hand signs in confusion and was ready to counterattack at any second. "What jutsu are you perfo-" silence suddenly filled the forest and then the sound of birds flying away to a new destination filled the sky.

"Naruto what were you thinking!? You're lucky if I don't end up killing you!" Kushina hit her child on the head after he explained all the events from today. "I can't believe you lied to your own mother!"

Naruto rubbed his head and pouted slightly. "I-I'm sorry mom but technically I didn't lie about passing the final exam since I officially passed it 20 minutes ago."

Kushina clenched her left fist as she attempted to control her anger. "Yes, but at the time of you saying it, it was a lie." She crossed her arms. "Just wait until your father gets here."

"Wait until I get here to do what?" Minato walked into the waiting room and smiled at his two family members. "Sorry I was held up bringing Mizuki to the Intel Division."

"What's there to find out." Naruto pouted. "Mizuki wanted that scroll to himself and he tried to kill me and Iruka in attempt to get it."

The Forth Hokage shook his head. "Naruto, we don't know exactly why he wanted the scroll. We don't know if he wanted it for his own intentions or if he was working for someone else." He sighed and smiled. "It may take a while until we find out the truth."

Kushina glared down at her son. "Maybe we should drag you over to the Intelligence Division to find out how much you've lied about."

"Y-You're joking right?" Naruto gulped. "I've already told you the truth about everything that's happened today."

Minato chuckled gently then noticed Naruto holding the headband and decided to change the conversation."So I guess Iruka decided to make you a ninja afterall?"

The Uzumaki's eyes reached his father's then looked down at the headband. He grinned widely. "Yeah Iruka even gave me his own headband."

"That's great, I'm proud of you son." Minato slowly turned to the door. "I hate to do this but I need to go help out at the Intel Division. It's been a long day with everything that's happened." He smiled reassuringly at Naruto. "And don't worry, I've explained your little break in to where all the scrolls were and it's all been sorted. However, in the future, attempt to make it look like you haven't broken in instead of leaving the place looking like a war zone."

As Naruto chuckled Kushina crossed her arms. "What about Naruto's punishment? Even if he did protect Iruka he still deserves a punishment for everything else that he's done today."

Minato thought for a few seconds. "Hmm... I don't think he should be punished for what happened in the forest earlier however..." Minato looked over at his child. "For lying to your mother and your poor attempt of secretly stealing information... I've got the perfect punishment for that in a couple of days."

Before Kushina could ask what he was talking about, he was gone in a flash. She sighed gently. "Well... I guess if your father has everything sorted, we should start to head home before it gets too dark."

Naruto gently nodded. "Alright then. Let's go heheh." And with that the mother and child walked home.

Minato walked into the Intelligence Decisions room that was two floors underground the hospital. Mizuki was sitting down on the floor, passed out. He had seals around his arms and legs restraining him from movement and using any chakra. As Minato stepped foot in the brightly lit room, the ninja inside looked at him in defeat.

One if them walked over to him. "Lord Hokage, Mizuki's mind is filled with seals that are blocking our way to search through his memories. So it's almost certain that he was under the influence of another ninja or, very unlikely, he put the seals in his mind himself." The ninja glanced over at Mizuki. "However seals of this level are close to impossible for ninjas to perform on themselves."

Minato sighed. "I was afraid that this would happen..." He shook his head and smiled slightly. "Hopefully Inoichi Yamanaka can extract even the slightest part of information from Mizuki's mind."

After a few more minutes Inoichi Yamanaka arrived in the room where they were trying to extract information from Mizuki. Inoichi was one of the most skilled ninjas when it came to extracting information from ninjas mind; Since he was from the Yamanaka Clan he was especially talented in controlling peoples minds to do what was best for the given task.

Inoichi walked over to the unconscious ninja and sat cross legged close to him. He put his hand on the ninja's forehead and began to search his mind. Everyone watched in silence as the skilled ninja tried his best to find any information that he could.

After countless minutes of unsuccessful attempts of finding the smallest amounts of information, Inoichi stumbled upon a hazy memory:

 **Mizuki hid behind a tree, holding a kunai close to his chest whilst panting heavily. He glanced side to side and gritted his teeth. 'What was that? It looked like a puppet but a don't see or sence a puppet master anywhere nearby. And yet... the puppet was using a puppet.'**

 **Before Mizuki could think anymore about the troublesome situation he was in, a scorpion tail like object stabbed into his left side. He attempted to shout out in pain but was only able to cough up blood. He fell to the ground and closed his eyes as tight as he could in pain and also in frustration with himself**

 **The heat from the sun heated the dry ground whilst Mizuki struggled to control his muscles, as if he were paralysed. The owner of the weapon that caused damage to him slowly walked over to the wounded ninja. Mizuki saw a puppet like creature coming closer and closer to him. "W-who the hell or what the hell are you?"**

 **The puppet like creature chuckled in a low pitch tone. "My identity is not necessary. I see the poison has already began to work it's way through your blood." He glared down at the ninja he had just injured. "You should be honoured to have lasted this long."**

 **Mizuki's eyes widened in shock whilst he lay on the ground, completly defenceless. "Poison? What poison? You never injected anything into me."**

 **The scorpion tail slowly moved infront of the puppet like creature. Only now did Mizuki notice a purple liquid dripping from the tip of the tail. "You see, all my weapons are coated in poison. I only need to hit you once with any of them for my poison to have a critical effect on you or any ninja."**

 **The creature sighed , as if he was frustrated. "However, I work with the Akatsuki and we need ninja to use to leak information to us from as many villages as we can from The Five Great Nations. So lucky for you, your pathetic life will be spared for a little while after I give you the antidote." He slowly smirked, pleased to see that his poison had been so effective. "But surely you noticed that I was playing with you the whole time? I had to test out my new puppet to see if I had enhanced it correctly."**

After this sentence, the memory becomes corrupted and can no longer be seen or heard by Inoichi. He slowly opened his eyes and stood up. He rushed over to the table in a corner of the room.

"Inoichi? Is everything alright?" Minato began to walk over to the ninja before he put a hand up as if to ask for no one to distract him whilst he wrote something on a piece of paper.

After several minutes, Inoichi passed the piece of paper to Minato. At the top it said the word: "AKATSUKI". Below the title there was a diagram of what looked like a puppet. The puppet was labeled with one thing reading: "scorpion like tail - coated with a deadly poison."

"There wasn't much of the memory so everything that's on that piece of paper is what I found out about what happened to Mizuki." Inoichi sighed as he rethought everything he just heard and saw "It would seem whoever or whatever that puppet like creature is was the one who put Mizuki under a genjutsu. The reason for this seems to be becuase the 'Akatsuki' needed to use ninja from different villages to leak information to it or them or whatever the Akatsuki is."

"So I guess one way of putting it is a puppet is using puppets for infiltrating information from villages." Minato examined the diagram closely. "And, this puppet looks very similar to someone but I can't figure out who. Did you find out which village this 'person' came from."

"No Lord Hokage, I could not find out that that. I couldn't see a village headband so there is a possibility that it's a rouge ninja."

Minato sighs gently. "And with the possible it being a rouge ninja it also means there's a possibility that this ninja is connected to those three rouge ninjas that attacked our three anbu from quite a while back."

"There's been too much information that could all be linked with these rouge ninjas and their identities. This might sound drastic however..." Minato slowly placed the piece of paper down on the table. "... I'm thinking of setting up a meeting with the other four Kage."

Inoichi's eyes widened in shock. "Are you sure Lord Hokage? Yes we've had quite a bit of trouble with rouge ninjas later but do you think that the other Kage will care about that matter? Let alone come to a conference with their rivals?"

Minato sighed and smiled. "Maybe you're right Inoichi but I have had some reports from the villages about rouge ninjas so I'm positive that some of the information that I've recently found out will be to use or interest to them."

"W-well if your sure about it Lord Hokage, I could send out messages to the other Kage before the morning comes."

"Thank you Inoichi, that would be great." The Hokage smiled then glanced over at Mizuki. "Now, I suggest that we bring Mizuki up to the hospital but keep him restrained until we've made sure he's in control of his own mind again."

All the ninja in the room agree with Minato and carefully bring Mizuki up to the hospital and into a room.

As soon as Mizuki had been captured and restrained, Satori could sence it. "It would seem that The Hokage has caught one of my puppets... Our information about the leaf will no longer be coming into us, at least for now."

The masked man shook his head. "It was inevitable, of course The Forth Hokage would spot anyone that was acting strange.

One of the swordsman chuckled. "You should have let us, two of The Seven Great Swordsmen, went into the leaf and attacked our way to the information."

"Not even you two would have a chance to get information by starting a war with a whole village. The Leaf Village is large in number and has many unique clans."

Sasori glanced up at the three ninja. "However, I do have some good news." Sasori grinned underneath his puppet. "One of me other puppets have found another possible candidate for the Akatsuki. It seems he received great enjoyment from destroying two of my other puppets. I say we go pay him a visit."

The masked man smiled under his mask. "Very well then. I've been meaning to get some new members. We'll head out tomorrow in search of this ninja."


	15. Chapter 15: What Am I?

Whilst the stars became a source of light in the night sky, Minato slowly strolled around the village as he slowly began to make his way home.

Today had been a hectic day and the next few days would be sure to stay that day since he decided to create a summit between him and the other four Kage of the four other powerful villages. The Hokage was almost certain that that the Kazekage would turn up since not only were the Leaf Village and Sand Village allies, The Forth Hokage and The Forth Kazekage had a close bond with each other.

However, it was the other three Kage that Minato wasn't quite sure on their arrival to his summit her would request them to attend. It wasn't as if any of the three villages were enemies with the Leaf Village but they weren't exactly willing to give aid to the Leaf either. Their annoyance towards the Leaf Village slightly grew when it had obtained a Jinchuuriki who had the Nine Tails sealed inside of them.

Minato reached to the door of his house. He inhaled a deep breath then sighed. It was best he went to bed early so he had more than enough rest for the upcoming day.

Before Minato had the chance to open the door, the door was swung open by an upset child. *Why did you never tell me!?"

Minato looked down at the child. "Tell you about what what Naruto?" He glanced over at Kushina who had a worried and shocked look on her face.

Naruto clenched his hands into fists. "Mizuki told me. He told me I have a monster inside me. A monster that killed people in our own village the day I was born. Why would you never tell me that such a horrible thing was part of me?"

Minato's eyes widen in shock to hear that his son had learnt about the Tailed Beast inside of him. Mizuki must have told Naruto about the Nine Tails before he seen Naruto cradling the scroll.

Naruto's eyes began to water and tears ran down his cheeks. "So what the hell am I? Am I a human? Am I a monster? Am I a murderer? Am I innocent for all the actions this... thing that's inside me has done?"

"You are my son, Naruto." Minato crouched down and held his child close to him. "I know you must be filled with anger towards me for never telling you about the 'monster' inside of you however, I never told you becuase it's a very long and complicated story of why it is inside of you and why it exists."

Naruto gritted his teeth. "Don't give me that crap. Of course that's your excuse, I'm a child so of course you'd say I wouldn't understand."

Kushina walked over to both of them. "Naruto! Mind your language." Before Naruto could reply, she crouched down and hugged her child along with Minato. "Please stay quite whilst your father explains, alright?"

Naruto nodded slightly whilst his mother wiped away his tears. Minato slowly stood back up and looked down at his child whilst he thought about what to say.

"The 'monster' inside of you is a Tailed Beast called the Nine Tails. It is given that name simply becuase it has nine tails. Throughout partially all of shinobi history, villages have fought countless battles to obtain the power of these Tailed Beasts for their own power, protection and glory."

Minato thought about the next thing he was about to say and wether or not to tell it to his son. He decided he would in attempt to restore any trust that he had lost from his child. "There is nine Tailed Beasts in total, each with a different amount of tails. Naruto... you are not the only one with a Tailed Beast inside of you, several other individuals also have them sealed away inside of them. In fact, your friend Gaara also has a Tailed Beast sealed away in him.

"G-gaara!?" The Uzumaki's eyes widened in shock. He and Gaara were close friends from birth, mainly becuase of the bond between their fathers. Even though they both didn't see each other often, they also shared a strong bond with each other. "Gaara also has a mons- I mean Tailed Beast inside of him?"

Minato simply nodded in reply to his child. "But it is important that you don't tell anyone. There are some ninjas from other villages and rouge ninjas who will attack Jinchuuriki's such as yourself and Gaara for usually one of two reasons: One, they want to try and steal the Tailed Beast in attempt to increase their or their villages power. Or two, since almost all Jinjuriki's cannot control their Tailed Beast's power, they will attempt to extract it from them and cause havoc in the Jinjuriki's village."

Whilst the new information began to sink into him, a horrible thought entered him. "So do the villagers see me as a weapon of mass destruction that could also be used against them? Almost like a double ended sword?"

"I will not lie, some villagers think exactly that and I cannot blame them... They've seen the destruction of The Nine Tails first hand. However..." Minato looked at both Kushina and Naruto. "I do believe that you, Naruto, will one day be able to control The Nine Tails power one day alongside your mother."

"What? Why would I control it with mom? It's not like she has the Nine Tails inside her as well?" Naruto looked at his father and mother in total confusion. All this information was difficult to take in but now his father wasn't making any sence.

Minato slowly sat down. "Maybe telling you about how the Nine Tails is inside of you will help explain that." He looked up at the ceiling before he began to explain what happened the day Naruto was born:

 **"Put our child down! He has no reason to be involved in whatever this is." Minato gritted his teeth as he looked over at a masked man who was wearing a cloak that hid all his body. He glanced down at Kushina as he saw her face grow with fear for her child.**

 **The masked man chuckled gently. "Oh but you see, I need this child right now for my plan to succeed." He smirked under his mask. "Now...let's see the reason why you were given the nickname The Yellow Flash." He tossed the new born baby, Naruto, into the air and held a kunai in his right hand.**

 **"Naruto!" Minato moved in a flash, grabbing Naruto in mid air before he had a chance for gravity to pull him back down. He glared over at the masked man.**

 **The chuckle from the masked man filled the room once again. "Impressive Hokage. How about you show me how fast you can escape your next obstacle."**

 **After a split second of this sentance being said, Minato noticed paper bombs on the back if the blanket that was around Naruto.**

 **Minato didn't hesitate. He quickly unwrapped the blanket off the child and threw it towards the exit. However, he knew that there wouldn't be enough time for the blanket to get far away enough from them so that the explosion wouldn't hurt them. Because of this, Minato used Flying Raijin, a jutsu that allowed the user to transport themself to a specific area that is marked with a seal.**

 **Minato used the jutsu to transport him and Naruto away to one of his kunai that he placed in a field earlier just incase of emergency.**

 **Why did the masked man place paper bombs on the blanket if he was going to attack Naruto and set them off? No. He predicted The Hokage's actions in advance which meant his real goal was to separate Minato with Kushina. But why? Is it possible that he knows that she's a Jinchuuriki and the seal is at its most vulnerable right now?**

 **Minato's thoughts were cut off when he heard someone behind him. "Minato Sensei? Why the hell are you carrying a naked baby?"**

 **"Obito? What are you doing here?" He shook his head, knowing the awnser would be becuase he was training. "That doesn't matter. Please take my son to the hospital then... then inform the Third Hokage or someone high up to begin evacuating the village."**

 **Before Obito had the chance to ask Minato any questions about his sudden requests, he was given the newborn baby and Minato was gone in a bright yellow flash.**

 **Obito gulped and began to run the hospital as carefully as he could. He knew that Minato was serious about all his requests since he saw one thing he had only seen once in his Sensei's face before: Fear.**

 **Minato reappeared in the room where Kushina had just given birth to their son. He gritted his teeth as he noticed that the masked man and Kushina were no longer there.**

 **"Crap!" Minato hit his fist against the wall. He sighed in annoyance of himself. "Alright, calm down Minato. Surely both of them couldn't be out of the village yet, unless he can use a transportation jutsu but let's not think about that for now."**

 **Minato slowly sat down on the floor with his legs crossed. He began to attempt to sence the presence of the Nine Tails chakra since it should be the easiest to find becuase of its large amount. Even though he had began to train with Jiraya once again just over a year ago, his time was mostly spent on paperwork and mission assignments - his duties as the Hokage- and recently he had spent all his free time with Kushina in her late stages of pregnancy.**

 **Never had Minato wished more than now that he had started learning sage jutsu with Jiraya much earlier becuase if he had he may have been able to successfully sence the whereabouts of the Nine Tail's chakra.**

 **Just as Minato had began to fully focus, his concentration was shattered from a large explosion like sound from quite a distance away.**

 **"T-that has to be them!" Minato quickly got up on his feet and rushed outside. He came to a sudden halt when his face filled with fear when he saw the owner of the explosion sound.**

 **"Kakashi! Come on, just one more round and then we'll call it a day" Gai was pleading Kakashi whilst he tagged along with him and Rin.**

 **The white haired teenager came to a hault and crossed his arms. "See that Gai?" He pointed up to the moon in the dark sky. "To me that signifies that the end of the day has already passed so stop pestering me and go home."**

 **Rin giggled awkwardly and rubbed the back of her neck. "Kakashi, how about you just play a simple game of rock paper scissors and then this whole fuss while all be ov-" Rin stopped in the middle of her sentance when something at the edge of her vision caught her eye.**

 **"Obito!?" Kakashi's visible eye widened when he saw the situation the Uchiha was in. "Oh for fu-... Why the hell have you got a naked child in your arms? Seriously only you can get into these situations..."**

 **"Kakashi! Mind your language." Rin scolded Kakashi as if a new born baby would understand anything he said. "Obito, who is this? And why do you seem to be in such a hurry."**

 **Obito shook his head and carefully passed Naruto into Rin's arms. "There's not much time to explain. Minato just gave me his newborn child Naruto and..."**

 **Obito was brought to a hault from his explanation by Rin's change in interest. "Aww. So this is Kushina's child? He's so cute." She begins to coo to the infant. "But shouldn't he be wrapped up or something? He might catch a cold..."**

 **"Minato just gave him to me like that!" Obito tried to speed things up in fear that whatever Minato was worried about would soon happen. "Rin this is urgent from Minato, take Naruto to the hospital and keep him safe." He then turned to Kakashi and clenched his hands into fists. "Kakashi, this is also urgent from Minato, find the Third Hokage or someone high up to begin evacuating the village."**

 **Kakashi looked at Obito as he thought. Normally he would refuse orders from Obito in a heart beat but these orders with from the Hokage so it was a completly different case. "Alright... but evacuate the village for what exactly? And if Minato wanted to evacuate the village why would he want his child to be put in the hospital."**

 **"Oh, Minato Sensei must have meant the hospital in the evacuation sight. But what would make him decide to evacuate the whole village so suddenly? Rin tilted her head whilst looking at Obito.**

 **Rin and Kakashi's question was answered a couple of seconds later when a large explosion like sound filled the air. The four ninja stared up at the owner of the sound whilst being paralysed in fear.**

 **Kakashi was the first to break out of the paralysis. "Well... I don't think we need to inform anyone about evacuating the village now."**

 **Obito slowly gritted his teeth. "So this is what Minato was so worried about." Obito turned around and sprinted into the distance.**

 **"O-Obito!" Rin watched as Obito dashed off. She sighed gently. "What is he up to now." She faced Kakashi and Gai. "I'll bring Naruto to the evacuation centre with my. You two, begin evacuating the village until you get orders from the higher ups of the village." She began to run carefully in the direction of the evacuation centre**.

 **Kakashi sighed. "Well looks like we can't call it a day after all. Let's go Gai." The two ninja went in separate directions to look for villagers to evacuate.**

 **Minato stared up at the Nine Tails in fear. "H-how is that possible? How has he been released." Minato gulped and grabbed one of his kunai. "K-Kushina!"**

 **"No Forth Hokage, for now you'll be paying your attention on me and me alone." The masked man appeared behind Minato and held a kunai up to his throat.**

 **The Hokage's eyes widened but he moved out the way in a flash. He glanced up at the Nine Tails as he thought: 'Lord Third... I'm sorry but you'll have to protect the village for at least a few minutes."**

 **"Very well then... I'll stop you then I'll stop the Nine Tails." Minato threw his unique kunais in multiple areas around him and the masked man.**

 **The unidentified man chuckled gently. "Even for the Hokage I doubt that's possible however, you can at least try to prove me wrong." He threw a few shiruken that were hidden under his sleeves then ran towards Minato.**

 **Rin eventually arrived at the evacuation site. She tired her best to calm down the new born child but found it very difficult. "Come on Naruto, there's no need to be scared."**

 **"Maybe he's just hungry." A shinobi walked over to Rin and handed her a bottle.**

 **Rin slowly brought her eyes up to look at the shinobi. "I-Itachi! I'm glad to see the you and Sasuke are safe."**

 **Itachi gave a slight smile to Rin. He was holding Sasuke close to him in his arms to protect him as best he could."I could say the same thing about you and..."**

 **"His name is Naruto. He's Minato Sensei's son." Rin accepted he bottle from Itachi and tried her best to feed the baby.**

 **"The Hokage's child? Of course... he must be fighting the Nine Tails." Itachi sighed gently and rocked Sasuke back and forth.**

 **Rin nodded gently. "Yeah, I hope he and Kushina will be alright out there..."**

 **"I'm sure they'll be both more than capable to stay safe." Itachi replyed to try and reassure Rin even though he had heard stories about what happened to a Tailed Beast host when it is extracted from them.**

 **Minato clashed kunai with the masked man once more for what felt like the hundredth time. He glared at the man infront of him once more. 'he's fast. I would try to end this with a rasengan but his much too quick for that unless..."**

 **Minato grabbed one of his kunai and began to form the rasengan in his right palm. When he had finished forming the ball of chakra, he ran head on to the masked man.**

 **"I see... that's your unique jutsuz the rasengan. However, with such a slow attack you could never hope to even scratch me." The masked man easily dodged Minato's attack by moving to the side.**

 **Minato smirked as he predicted the masked man's move. He threw his kunai just above where the man was standing.**

 **The masked man chuckled. The Hokage's moves were all too predictable. He moved quickly so he was no longer in line with the kunai in the air. He stood facing up at the kunai, ready to attack Minato as soon as he appeared.**

 **However, Minato did not appear from the kunai in the air, instead he attacked the masked man from behind with his rasengan which made him hurl into trees near by. A bone shattering noise came from the man who lucky had his mask hit against the tree instead of the back of his head.**

 **'Of course! The kunai he threw in the air was just a diversion so I'd forget about the other kunai he had already scattered around the place. I can't believe I was fooled by such a simple trick!' Even though anger was flowing through the masked man's mind, he let out a satisfied chuckle. "Well it would seem I have wasted some of your precious time and chakra that could have used on stopping the Nine Tails. Good luck Forth Hokage." The masked man disappeared almost as fast as Minato was able to if he wanted to escape.**

 **The vibrations of aggressiveness went up a three as Minato slammed his fist against it. He wanted to go after the masked man for being so cowardly and fleeing in the middle of the battle however, he had much larger issues to be concerned about.**

 **Minato looked back up at the Nine Tails and his eyes widened. "He's in the village now! Obito... I hope you were able to get Naruto and everyone else to safety." Now Minato had to decide, to find Kushina first or go after the Tailed Beast.**

 **Minato decided in a split second and quickly began to search the area for Kushina. He knew that without finding her she'd surely die if he didn't seal the Nine Tails back inside of her and he was sure that the Third Hokage could manage defending the village for a little while longer.**

 **After Gai had evacuated all the ninja he could find, he noticed Kakashi and ran over to him. "How many people did you evacuate? I evacuated a total of 61."**

 **Kakashi sighed and glared at Gai slightly. "Seriously? You're trying to continue this stupid rivalry competition at a time like this?" He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "...and just over 70."**

 **"No I was just curious that's all but, since you brought our rivalry into this, we're both tied at 25 now." Gai grinned slightly then slowly looked up at the Nine Tails with Kakashi.**

 **"What are you two doing here? You two should be in the evacuation centre where it's safe!" Kakashi and Gai turned around and saw the head of the Uchiha Clan disciplining them.**

 **"But sir, I'm a Jonin so I'm more than capable to take part in this situation." Kakashi stared to get annoyed that someone once again assumed his rank because of his age.**

 **"Oh, Kakashi sorry I didn't realise that it was you." Kakashi looked up at the Uchiha in confusion, who could he have mistakes with him. The Uchiha cleared his throat. "In fact this is perfect timing. Obito wanted to search for Kushina ans Minato but we refused since he is still only a genin. He wanted to go with this person." A man slowly walked up to the head of the Uchiha Clan and smiled down at Kakashi.**

 **Both Kakashi and Gai's eyes widened in shock when they saw the man. "Y-You're..."**

 **The Uchiha nodded gently as they all knew the person who was standing next to him. "This was Obito's idea to go find the Hokage and Kushina with this man. Obito's one request was if couldn't go he wanted you, Kakashi, to go in his place. He's gave the mission details to him." He noddes to the shinobi standing next to him.**

 **Kakashi slowly nodded. "Alright I understand." He knew that To was about to complain for having to evacuate now whilst his rival went on a mission. "Gai, we both know that neither of us is any match for even a fraction of the Nine Tails power at our age so even though it's painful, please evacuate to safety for now and I'll go to the evacuation centre as soon as I'm finished with this mission."**

 **Gai clenched his hands info fists and slowly nodded. "Alright Kakashi, I understand. But don't come to the eviction centre without Kushina."**

 **Gai ran in one direction whilst Kakashi and the man that Obito gave the mission details to ran in another direction.**

 **A couple of minutes later, the head of the Uchiha Clan and everyone else out on the open noticed that the Nine Tails attention refocused to the stone carvings of the current and previous Hokages. The Uchiha squinted his eyes then gasped as he saw who the Nine Tails was focused on. "That's..."**

 **Minato glared at the Tailed Beast before him. Even though he was a few hundred metres away from the beast, he could still feel his breath hitting him.**

 **The Nine Tails let out a deafening roar that could be heard form miles away. After it made its presence known to anyone near that was stupid enough to not realise him already there, he began to form an immense ball of chakra.**

 **Minato gritted his teeth as he watched the energy form into a ball. If the Nine Tails were to shoot it against the stone faces that he was standing on,it could be possible that the who village could be wiped out.**

 **The Forth Hokage slowly held a kunai in both of his hands and held it up towards the Nine Tails. "I'll stop you. I won't allow you to destroy my home!"**


	16. Chapter 16: Sealed Away

**Sasuke's father looked up at the Nine Tails and felt his heart rate increase rapidly as he saw a dark purple ball form. "W-What the hell is that? It looks similar to The Hokage's rasengan but about a hundred times larger."**

 **Gai had just reached the evacuation centre when he noticed a large object form in the air. His eyes widen in shock and fear. "Did... the Nine Tails create that? Who else could have?"**

 **The Forth Hokage slowly held a kunai in both of his hands and held it up towards the Nine Tails. "I'll stop you. I won't allow you to destroy my home!"**

 **The Tailed Beast growled then swallowed the insane amount of energy that he collected into a ball. After a few seconds, the Nine Tails fired the ball of energy towards Minato at the speed of sound.**

 **Minato knew how the Kyubi would attack before he even did. The ball of energy stopped, half a inch away from Minato's kunai knife. The energy began to look like it was being sucked into the kunai knife, as if Minato was trying was trying to seal away an incredible amount of physical energy.**

 **The head of the Uchiha Clan gasped as he watched the ball of destruction slowly shrink into the kunai. "Is he trying to seal away such a large object? Even with his skill in Fūinjutsu he'll surely be killed from a loss of chakra."**

 **Minato smirked gently when there was no longer a purple sphere. He glanced behind him just seconds before the aftershocks of a enormous explosion occurred miles away from the village.**

 **"Such destruction. I wish I could have sealed it away instead but..." Minato looked back over to the Nine Tails. "... I'm afraid I to reserve my chakra to seal away you instead." He then disappeared again in a flash.**

 **Before the Nine Tails could react to Minato's sudden disappearance, he was pushed down against the growing by the Third Hokage with Enma.**

 **"Quick! We must restrain the Nine Tails for Lord Forth to begin sealing the beast away." The Third Hokage commanded the other ninja with him. Even though he was retired, he would still fight in battles that were urgent and he still held some power over the ninja of the village.**

 **The Third Hokage was about to attack the Tails Beats again when suddenly Minato appeared in the air on top of a huge toad named Gamabunta.**

 **Gamabunta was shocked by his sudden appearance but when he landed on top of the Nine Tails he immediately assumed that he was summoned to restrain the beast. "Stay down your runt!" He smashed the Nine Tail's head down onto the ground when he attempted to bring it off the dirt.**

 **Minato leapt down onto the Nine Tails and pressed his hands down onto his skin, forming a seal. He looked up at the Third Hokage and the other ninjas who had surprised looks on their faces. "Thank you, everyone." He disappeared with the Nine Tails, leaving Gamabunta behind and even more confused.**

 **The Third Hokage looked in shock at the area where the Nine Tails just was. "Minato you fool, you can't possibly have enough chakra to summon Gamabunta, teleport the Nine Tails and then seal him away." Seconds later, he noticed the Nine Tails reappear a far distance north to where he was now. "Quick, we need to get to Lord Forth before it's too late!" And with that, the Third Hokage sprinted towards the beast with his subordinates.**

 **Minato had teleported the Tailed Beast far away from the village, close to where he left Kushina wrapped in his Hokage cloak.**

 **Kushina breathed heavily and looked up at Minato with one eye closed. "Minato, you look exhausted. Are you finally going to tell me what your plan is?"**

 **"I don't have much chakra left..." Minato looked over at Kushina then turned around to look at the beast he had brought with him. "Hang on, I'll tell you my plan in a second." Minato made a few hand signs then slammed his hands down on the ground.**

 **Rin had managed to get Naruto to finally fall asleep when the amount of sound decreased outside. "I can't hear the Nine Tails anymore. Do you think Minato Sensei managed to seal him away."**

 **"Hopefully he has." Itachi sighed gently, hoping that a Tailed Beast could be resealed into a Jinjuriki to prevent them from dying. "And if not, I'm sure he's in the process of doing so."**

 **Rin smiled gently and nodded. "You're probably ri-" she stopped speaking and gasped when Naruto disappeared from her arms, leaving a small cloud of white smoke behind. "W-what just happened? Where did Naruto go?"**

 **Itachi also looked surprise at the sudden disappearance of the child. "I think that was the Hokage's teleportation jutsu... so I guess it's safe to say that Minato and Kushina are okay and want to resume their time with their child."**

 **Rin sighed gently then slowly lowered her empty arms. "Well they could have at least came here in person to collect Naruto. I almost had a heart attack..."**

 **Itachi smiled slightly then looked up to the ceiling, hoping his prediction of the Hokage being alright was true.**

 **As soon as Minato slammed his hands down on the ground, Naruto appeared several feet away from him, wrapped in a blanket on top of a stone slab.**

 **Kushina's eyes widened in fear as she saw her child. "Minato! What the hell are you doing? Why have you brought Naruto so close to danger?"**

 **Minato slowly looked up at Kushina. "I don't have enough chakra to seal the Nine Tails away in you. If I were able to seal half of it away in you then it's possible that you would survive but I don't even have enough chakra for that." His eyes slowly began to water. "Since Naruto is smaller, it'll take less chakra to seal the Nine Tails inside of him. I should have enough to seal half away in him. Then, with my remaining chakra, I'll seal away the other half of the Nine Tails with the fūinjutsu that I created."**

 **Kushina gritted her teeth. "Have you gone insane!? Sealing a Tailed Beast inside Naruto? He has no right to suffer such a heavy burden and the consequences of light with such a vicious thing inside of him."**

 **"Kushina. I'm sealing half inside of Naruto because I truly believe he'll be able to control the Nine Tails." Minato sighed, he sounded crazy but because of the proficy that Jiraya told him in the past, he truly believed that this was possible.**

 **"Minato! Stop talking such crap." Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I won't let you do such a thing to our child. I know the pain of being a Jinchuuriki. The judgement. The loneliness. The abuse. I don't want that to be the one thing we leave for our child."**

 **"But Kushina, you kept on fighting and you managed to escape the fate of a Jinchuuriki. You're no longer being judged. You're no longer a victim of loneliness. You no longer have others abuse you. Instead you've fought and now are living around those who love you."**

 **Kushina let out a slight laugh as tears rolled down her cheeks. "But now all of that is going to fade away isn't it? In the end everyone's fears came true - the nine tails escaped from me and caused havoc."**

 **Minato held Kushina close to him and smiled softly. "But that wasn't your fault. I have a feeling you could have possibly been able to control the Nine Tails power and I have no doubt that our child will have the same will as you do and be able to finish what you started."**

 **Kushina sighed and smiled slightly. "I'm not going to be able to stop you huh?" She stared into his eyes. "You're really set on the idea that Naruto will be able to control the Nine Tails. Very well Minato, I trust that you're going to do the right thing. Besides, if I argue anymore then I'd just be wasting time that you could be using to seal away the Nine Tails."**

 **Minato smiled gently and nodded. He turned back to face the Nine Tails. His eyes widened. "No!" The Tailed Beast had taken aim and was about to murder Naruto with a swipe of his claws.**

 **Kushina looked up at the beast as well. Her pupils shrunk and she quickly stood up, a surge of power rushing into her. She ran over to her child and used her body as a shield in attempt to block the advancing attack towards Naruto.**

 **Kushina closed her eyes tightly. However, she didn't feel any pain from the Nine Tails attack. Was she killed straight away? She slowly opened her eyes and as soon as she did she heard: "Massive Rasengan!"**

 **She looked away as a huge ball of blue light exploded in front of her. She was confused by the size and the name of the jutsu. "M-Minato?" She looked back in front of her. "Jiraya!?"**

 **Minato, who was standing next to Kushina, look at his former Sensei in surprise. He heard someone running towards the three of them. "And Kakashi? What are you both doing here?"**

 **Jiraya looked at the Nine Tails who was knocked down on the ground by his attack. "Well I thought that was obvious, we're here to help seal the Nine Tails away."**

 **"But...how did you know where to find us?" Minato asked, relieved that they both came when they did because if they didn't he, Kushina and probably Naruto would have been killed.**

 **"Well I am in sage mode so I identified your chakra as soon as I went into sage mode. Besides, when the Nine Tails suddenly appeared here it was obvious that you brought him here." Jiraya grinned and looked beyond Minato and Kushina. "So is that my new god son?"**

 **Minato nodded gently. He explained his plan about sealing away the Nine Tails in both himself and Naruto to them both as quickly as he could.**

 **"Hmm..." Jiraya thought for a few seconds. "Well sealing away half a Tailed Beast in someone then the other half in another person is much quicker than sealing away since there doesn't have to be such a long time of constant chakra going into the sealing jutsu." He crossed his arms. "But I think we may just have just enough chakra between us to seal away the Nine Tails in both Naruto and Kushina. Besides, I'm in sage mode right now so at the very least we can begin to seal the second half away until reinforcement comes."**

 **"Alright then." Minato sighed relief. "Let's start with Kushina first." He turned towards Kushina and smiled. "It looks like you can continue the adventure of being a Jinchuuriki with Naruto."**

 **Both Jiraya and Minato knew the exact sealing jutsu that was used to seal the Nine Tails and created the hand signs straight away. Minato smiled hopefully. "It seems that the seal is just opened, not destroyed so we don't have to start from scratch. Instead we just have to put half the Nine Tails back inside then reinforce the seal."**

 **The Nine Tails had only regained it's balance - from being knocked down by Jiraya's rasengan - as soon as the sealing jutsu began. He was frozen on the spot as if he had become completly paralysed. 'If it wasn't for that surprise attack I would have killed them all in less than a second. But now I'm being sealed away but not just in Kushina, but her little brat as well. Damn you Minato...'**

 **Kakashi watched both of the skilled ninja's perform the fūinjustu. How could he help? He had never used this type of jutsu before. "Jiraya, is there any possible way that I can help you both?"**

 **Jiraya nodded whilst he tried his best to concentrate. "Yes... lend Minato your chakra. He hasn't got much left and if both our chakra inputs aren't constant then the Nine Tails will be able to move and it's game over."**

 **Kakashi nodded and walked over to Minato. He placed his palms on top of Minato's hands and allowed his chakra to transfer into Minato's system.**

 **It took the three of them about five minutes to seal away half the Nine Tails back inside Kushina. Minato and Kakashi were both low on chakra and Jiraya's sage mode had began to fade away. Even though the Tailed Beats was half the size that he was five minutes ago, he was still a huge threat to the five people near him and the entire Leaf Village.**

 **Minato panted heavily. "Now... to seal away the other half in Naruto." He looked at Kushina then at his son.**

 **"Wait Minato!" Minato looked around and was shocked to see the Third Hokage and several anbu appear close to the Nine Tails.**

 **"Lord Third!" Minato sighed relief. He shook his head. He could be greatful later. He quickly summarised to the Third Hokage what he was about to do.**

 **"Seal it away inside the child huh?" The Third Hokage thought for a second. "Well it's your decision to do so and I doubt we have much time to be arguing about it. You've taught me the sealing jutsu for the Nine Tails so I'll help you with that." He glanced back at the anbu. "Alright, four of you get ready to lend me, Jiraya and the Forth Hokage whilst the rest of you stay on guard and restrain the Nine Tails is it begins to move."**

 **The sealing of the other half of the Nine Tails began successfully and with the Third Hokage and anbu ninjas, the sealing became a much easier task to complete.**

Minato slowly looked up at the ceiling as he finished his story. "And so we managed to seal the other half of the Nine Tails inside of you. Afterwards your mother spent quite a while in hospital since she had to recover from having such a large amount of chakra being extracted from her then half of it being put back. But she slowly recovered. I mean of course Kushina would recover with help of her will power no matter the odds."

"Kakashi became an anbu soon after the event and Obito was promoted to chunin for his quick thinking during the Nine Tails attack, which sounds great odd for Obito..." Minato began to ramble on but he quickly realised. "But anyway, that is how and why the Nine Tails is sealed away inside of you. You may see my as the worst father in the world but I still believe to this day that you can master the Nine Tail's power."

The child slowly looked down to the floor. "So..." He swallowed hard. "I was the reason that you and mom almost died along with many other ninja?"

"What? No of course not. You aren't the Nine Tails Naruto." Kushina held Naruto close.

"That's not what I'm talking about!" Naruto gently pushed his mother away. "If... If I wasn't born then mom's seal wouldn't have been weakened and then the Nine Tails wouldn't have been able to have been extracted by that masked man..."

Minato slowly walked over the his son and put his hand on top of his head. "Naruto, you cannot be held responsible for that. It wasn't your choice and there's no saying that the masked ninja wouldn't have tried to steal the Nine Tails even if the seal wasn't weakened."

He crouched down so he was level with Naruto. "But if I can't stop you from feeling responsible for those events that day then there is one thing you could do. Make sure that nothing like that happens again."

Naruto stared into his father's eyes with his own watery eyes. "But... but how am I supposed to make sure it never happens again?"

"Control the power within you. Keep hold of that power when someone threatens to take it away from you. Master that power so it becomes a thousand times more difficult to steal." Minato slowly held his child close. "It may sound impossible to control such a power within you. But your mine and Kushina's son. I'm sure that you and even your mother will one day make it impossible for that event to ever happen again."

Kushina clenched her hands into fists and chuckled softly. "What do you mean by 'and even your mother?' do you have power expectations for me to master it?"

"N-Not at all Kushina I have the same amount of expectations for both of you." Minato sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

Naruto smiled slightly at both his parents and rubbed his eyes dry. "I'm... going to go to bed now. Thanks mom, thanks dad."

A smirk slowly appeared on Kushina's face. "Oh and don't forget, I'm still going to punish you for lying today."

Naruto gulped. "Umm... A-Alright." He rubbed the back of his head and quickly ran up to his room.

Minato sighed gently and slowly sat down. "I think telling him about the Nine Tails was punishment enough. I was going to tell him about it when he was a little older but maybe telling him sooner was a better idea." He rubbed his eyes in tiredness. "I just wish it didn't happen at the same time I'm planning a Kage summit."

"A Kage summit?" Kushina's eyes widen in shock. "But why are you planning such a serious event? What's happened."

"Mizuki was put under a genjustu and that's why he tried to take the scroll. The person who put him under a genjutsu belongs to some group called the 'Akatsuki'. And I have a feeling that the rouge ninja that attacked Kakashi and his team were also part of this group."

Minato slowly stood up and looked at Kushina. "And I have a feeling that the masked man who appeared the day Naruto was born could be a member of this group."

Kushina's eyes widened and her pupils went small in fear. Outside a storm began to dominate the sky whilst Kushina's body was shaking in fear.

* * *

 _ **Authors note: Sorry its been so long since I've last updated this fanfiction, I've been quite busy but I'll try to update it more frequently in the future :)**_


	17. Chapter 17: The Five Kage

The weeks that came after Naruto learning the truth passed in what felt like an instant and so did the change in weather. The Summer warmth had disappeared and the chill of Autumn had taken the place.

The trees had began to loose their leaves; it was the start of the end for many things. It was the end for such things as warm, long days but more importantly it was the end of the days in the academy for Naruto.

Autumn also signified the end of something for Minato: the end of the waiting for his meeting with the Kage of the other four great nations. The first Monday of September was the date today and the date of the Five Kage Summit that Minato had set up.

Difficult didn't even come close to how it was to convince the four other Kage to agree to meet up in one place. There seemed to be a rivalry between the Raikage and the Tsuchikage. Also, it seemed that the Kazekage and Mizukage weren't very fond of each other either. In fact, it seemed that the Hokage and Kazekage were the only ones out of the five that had even the slightest bond of friendship. Minato had told the other four Kage that this meeting would be important and if the other Kage believed it wasn't, they would surely hate the Hokage and the Leaf Village more than they did already.

Minato took a deep breath as he placed his hand on the handle that belonged to the door where the other four Kage were waiting for him. He turned the cold, metal handle and walked in the room. "Sorry if I had to keep you all waiting, I had to collect some documents before coming here." Even though Minato was in fact early, he wanted to be as polite as he possibly could to the people who could start a war on his village in an instant if they felt like it.

In the room was the 4th Kazekage, Rasa; the 4th Raikage, A; the 3rd Tsuchikage, Ōnoki and the 3rd Mizukage, Yagura. Each of them was to bring two shinobi along with them for protection. Minato had brought two anbu with him who's identities were unknown to all except the Hokage. Minato slowly sat down in the spear seat. All five of them were sat at a circular table with their chosen shinobi either side of them.

"Thank you all for coming here to the Leaf Village. I've requested you all here today to discuss a matter that I see as becoming a larger threat to the shinobi world everyday. And that threat is a group of rouge ninja called the Akatsuki." Minato looked at the four Kage and waited to see if any of them had anything to ask before continuing.

The Mizukage cleared his throat before talking. "Hokage, if this is the same group of rouge ninja that you proclaimed to have members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen in their group then my awnser is still the same: the whereabouts of the seven of them is unknown ever since the attack between them and one of your shinobi. We don't even know if any of them are still alive."

Minato rubbed the back of his head, remembering the incident many years ago of the battle between a taijutsu specialist and the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. "Well that's-"

The Hokage didn't get a chance to finish his sentance since the Kazekage interrupted him. "Wasn't it the Swordsmen who started that attack on three shinobi then the battle turned to seven against one when one shinobi sacrificed his life to defend the three of those ninja? If they are dead then it's their fault for starting the battle don't you think Yagura?"

The Mizukage's left eye twitched a little as the Kazekage addressed him by his first name. "I never said who was to blame I was only stating a fact, alright Kazekage?"

The Kazekage smirked at the purple eyed Kage. "And I was stating a fact as well Yagura."

The Mizukage's eye twitched again. He had only talked to the Kazekage for less than a minute and he was already becoming extremely annoyed. Minato saw this and thought it was best to change the conversation without taking sides with either of them. "That incident is long in the past and we don't need to talk about it at this moment in time. Now please, I would be very greatful if you could listen to the information I have collected to the last couple of months."

The Hokage nodded to one of the anbu who then passed him a yellow folder. Minato slowly opened the folder to reveal a detailed, annotated diagram of the creature that attack Mizuki. "Now this is a diagram of one of the ninja's that works for the Akatsuki. One of my shinobi was attacked and put under some kind of genjutsu by this ninja." He stopped talking for a couple of seconds. "His objective for this seemed to be to collect information on the Leaf Village."

"Why are you referring to this thing as a ninja? It is clearly a puppet." The Raikage stated after looking at the diagram for less than ten seconds.

"That's what I thought at first Raikage." Minato turned to diagram to face the Raikage. "But this creature didn't seemed to be controlled by another ninja and it seemed to have control of its own movements and thoughts. Also, it was controlling a puppet. I've never seen a puppet master control a puppet that is controlling another puppet."

"Anyway, moving on. This ninja was using quite a... 'unique' puppet..." Minato wasn't sure if he should share the next piece of information so early in the meeting but he assumed that if he did then the other Kage would start to take him more seriously. He pulled another diagram out of the folder.

The Kazekage's eyes widened in shock as the next diagram was revealed. "N-No... that's impossible!"

All five of the Kage looked down at the diagram. It was a puppet that had the title: "3rd Kazekage?" and had an almost identical image to what the former Kazekage looked like but in puppet form.

The Tsuchikage was the next one to talk. "Hmm... well it looks like the former Kazekage wasn't strong enough to fight off a mere rouge puppet master."

Rasa was about to stand up and argue with the Tsuchikage's statement but the Hokage stopped him before he could. "With all due respect lord Tsuchikage but the 3rd Kazekage was known as one of the most powerful shinobi to become the Kazekage. So this is either an extremely powerful puppet master we're dealing with or..."

"It's not actually the 3rd Kazekage." Rasa finished off Minato's sentance. Connections began to form in his mind but he hoped that they would be false connections.

"Yes. Of course it's not the 3rd Kazekage, the puppet master was obviously using the former Kazekage's face to intimate his victims." A said this confidentiality, surely there was no way that a mere puppet master could turn such a powerful shinobi into a puppet.

"Well unfortunately we couldn't obtain any information about the abilities that the puppet has so I can't tell you if the puppet uses similar techniques to what the 3rd Kazekage used. But A is possibly right. I don't know any ninja that uses dead shinobis' bodies as puppets, let alone any ninja that does so that has gone rouge.

The 4th Kazekage bit his tongue, it would seem that his fears really could be possible. "Their is... one ninja that I know that did use dead shinobi as puppets. He went by the name of Sasori. Sasori of the Red Sand. He specialised in puppet mastery at a very young age and became one of the best puppet masters that the Sand Village has ever had. But he went rouge many many years ago and no one has ever heard of him since he has left the village."

Minato's eyes widened a little then he put his hands down on the table. "Well we can't cancel that possibility out yet."

The 3rd Mizukage leaned his head on top of the palm of his hand. "So if this shinobi of yours was under a genjutsu I guess you went through his memory to find out this information. So why don't you do the same thing with the three anbu that you said were attacked by members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"

Minato nodded gently. "I've already tried that. However, all three of their memories were hazy. The rouge ninja were wearing hats and black robes." He pointed down at the diagram. "Clothing that seemed to be the same as what this individual was wearing."

The Tsuchikage squinted as he looked at the clothing in the diagram. "I think it's almost certain that they belong to the same group. I doubt they could have identical clothes such as those by coincidence.

"So... you called this meeting to talk about a rouge puppet user and some members of the Ninja Swordsmen who may or may not have formed a group named the 'Akatsuki'? Seems as if a meeting with the four other great nations was much to extreme for such a little problem." The Raikage crossed his arms and slowly closed his eyes.

"I called this meeting to warn you other Kage about this growing threat. I fear that this group could become larger since other rouge ninjas may be influenced to join them since they have at least three powerful shinobi." Minato slowly stood up. "I fear that other villages may have been attacked by this orginisation as well and without our villages cooperating together then this problem could become much too big."

The Tsuchikage smirked slightly. "Maybe these rouge ninja are going after villages with weak defence systems. Did that cross your mind Hokage?"

The Kazekage stood up from his seat and glared at the Tsuchikage. "The Leaf Village has the Nine Tails. I'm sure that such a village has strong, great power."

The Mizukage rolled his eyes. "He wasn't talking about power, he was talking about defence." He crossed his arms. "Besides isn't the word 'strong' too big of a word for a village to throw around which lost their former Kazekage to a mere puppet user?"

Rasa clenched his fist. "Don't get cock. We don't know that's the truth yet!"

The Mizukage ignored the Kazekage as something clicked in his mind. He glared at the Raikage. "And what do you mean by the Ninja Swordsmen being a 'little problem'? Their skills are probably better than any of the ninja's you have in your village."

The Raikage looked up at the Jinjuriki Kage then closed his eyes. "They were elite shinobi in the past. That doesn't mean they're still elite now in the present."

The Mizukage clenched his fists. "Why you..." he continued to glare at the Raikage.

The Raikage slowly stood up. "I think we should wrap this meeting up. I don't exactly want to start a war between villages right now." He turned towards the door and slowly walked out of the room.

Minato sighed. Did the Raikage still have a grudge when he was proven not to be the fasted ninja alive by Minato. The Hokage slowly sat back down. "Very well then. Thank you all for coming. Please at least take caution if you see any rouge ninjas wearing those hats and robes."

"I doubt we'll have to be cautious about these rouge has been groups similar in the past and they all died away very quickly." The Tsuchikage exited the room soon after the Raikage.

"I'll send you any information I can find about the current whereabouts of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. But it's not my top priority right now so don't expect any information to come soon." Yagura waited a while before leaving the room, not wanting to bump into the other two Kage who had just left. When he left the room he made sure not to make we contact with the Kazekage.

The sound of laughter filled the now almost empty room. "I'm guessing that this meeting didn't go as you planned eh Minato?" The Kazekage grinned at the Hokage after the other three Kage had definitely left the building.

"Well yeah but they didn't seem too annoyed so I guess that's a bonus." Minato rubbed the back of his head as he slowly smiled at his friend.

Rasa slowly leaned back on his chair. "I suppose so. You should have collected more information or just made some facts up then maybe they would have been more concerned."

"I know I know. I've been collecting as much information as I could for months. This meeting was a gamble that I shouldn't have took."

"Oh? But it wasn't a complete failure, you got two of the Kage to help you at least a little." Rasa smiled slightly as he glanced out the large window.

"Two? But the Mizukage was the only one who..." Minato's eyes slowly widened. "You mean that you'll help as well Rasa?"

"Of course I will. Besides, I couldn't not help after what you've found out." Rasa slowly looked down at the puppet version of the 3rd Kazekage. He gritted his teeth for a second. "I need to help to find out if that really is the 3rd Kazekage and who created that puppet."

Minato nodded gently. "I understand." He slowly stood up and held out his hand to Rasa. "Well thank you for coming and supporting me. I owe you one."

Rasa looked at the hand he was supposed to shake. He grinned. "Oh? Saying goodbye to me already? That's cold hearted..." He stood up and stretched. "We haven't seen each other in a while. Let's walk."

The Hokage and Kazekage told their chosen shinobi to leave them alone for about a hour. Both of them walked through the Leaf Village together. They walked away from the busy centre of the village and onto a path where leaf's where hiding where the concrete ended and the grass began.

"So... Your child has became a shinobi hmm?" Rasa chuckled gently and winked. "Hopefully he'll become a skilled genin quickly so he can participate in the Chuunin Exams."

Minato nodded and smiled at Rasa. "I have faith that he'll be able to participate in the next Chuunin Exams. And who knows? Maybe both our sons will make it to the finals and face each other."

They both walked onto a small bridge and looked down at the stream of water that passed underneath their feet. "To some people it'll be Jinjuriki versus Jinjuriki but for most people it'll be the Hokage's son versus the Kazekage's son. I don't think there's ever been something like that in the Chuunin Exams."

Minato chuckled softly. "Yeah, that would be interesting to see. Let's just hope I haven't scared away those three Kage from sending their genin to the Chuunin Exams in the Leaf Village."

The Kazekage laughed and shook his head. They both continued to walk towards the exit so the Kazekage could finally travel back to his village.

"Deidara stop." Sasori shot daggers with his eyes over at the newest Akatsuki member Deidara who was doing his business near a bunch of tress "You are without a doubt the most annoying member of this orginisation so far."

"What? I can't exactly hold it in after standing here doing nothing for over a hour. Besides, I'm watering the tress so two birds with one stone." Deidara finished what he was doing and walked over to Sasori.

Sasori sighed, he hated to have to be partnered up with such an annoying shinobi. But if the worst were to happen he could just use him as a decoy.

"You know, I would have preferred to be teamed up with someone like Zabuza but nooo I have to be partnered up with you instead and wait for hours for your stupid spy to give you information about this silly Five Kage Summit." Deidara sighed and looked up at the trees.

"Well we're almost done. I've received the information about the Kage Summit now we get to have some fun." Sasori chuckled gently.

Deidara raised an eyebrow. "Some fun? You mean we're actually going to do something instead of just sit here all day and do nothing?"

"Oh yes. I'm going to kill a Kage, allow a Tailed Beast to rampage and possible start a war. All with one puppet." Sasori chuckled as he began to make a few hand signs.

Laughter filled the edge of the forest. "Oh really? So you're going to kill three birds...no more like three whales with one stone? Yeah good luck with that."

Sasori smirked as he glanced up at the new Akatsuki member. "Well you don't know the limit of my skills. You'll just have to believe in what I say."

"Hmph, I think I'd prefer to see it than just take your word." Deidara smirked and walked back into the forest.

The Mizukage was currently travelling back to his village with his two anbu shinobi that he chose to come with him on the journey. He wrapped a scarf around himself. The weather was getting colder and colder the closer they got to the Hidden Mist Village. He sighed gently and watched his breath escape from his mouth and into the cold atmosphere. He looked up at the pure white clouds then noticed the clouds becoming more grey as they continue their journey home. "Seems like we're going to have another rainey season huh?"

One of the shinobi stopped walking and clutched his shoulder as he slightly groaned in pain. The Mizukage slowly turned around and raised an eyebrow at the shinobi as he looked at him with his purple eyes. "What's wrong? Did you pull a muscle or something?"

The anbu smirks under his mask and disappears in thin air for a second. He then appears behind the Mizukage, holding a kunai knife up to the area of his neck that isn't covered by the scarf.

The Mizukage slowly glared up at the anbu as the other anbu watched in shock. The purple eyed Jinjuriki didn't move a muscle, still confused by the whole situation. "Just what do you think you're doing?"


	18. Chapter 18: Enemy or Ally?

The air felt like it was trying to steal your warmth from your body; the Hidden Mist Village's weather seemed to contrast with the other village's weather at this time of year. However, the weather felt as if it just dropped another five degrees.

The anbu smirked under his mask and disappeared in thin air for a second. He then appeared behind the Mizukage, holding a kunai knife up to the area of his neck that isn't covered by the scarf.

The Mizukage slowly glared up at the anbu as the other anbu watched in shock. The purple eyed Jinjuriki didn't move a muscle, still confused by the whole situation. "Just what do you think you're doing?"

The other anbu fumbled for his kunai and held it up to attack even though it was obvious he wasn't going to be helpful in this situation.

The anbu who seemed to just become a traitor grinned like a mad man. "What am I doing? What a foolish question to ask." The traitor moved his kunai away from the Mizukage but then quickly lodged it against the leader's throat.

"L-Lord Mizukage!" The other anbu watched helplessly as his leader was attacked at such a vulnerable part of his body. However, his shock was soon overpowered with relief when he saw the Mizukage's body transform into water.

"Is it really a foolish question to ask when a trusted anbu turns against his village leader so suddenly with no reason?" The Mizukage appeared behind the traitor with his arms crossed and his eyes glaring at him.

The anbu chuckled. "Of course, how could I even think that the Mizukage would drop his guard even for a second. Even whilst he was around his very own anbu." He lifted his arms up into the air, letting the kunai drop down to the floor.

"A Jinjuriki nor a Kage can afford to let his or her guard down. As I am both it's foolish to think even for a second that I would." Yagura held a shiruken between his fingers, ready to restrain this anbu but also ready to attack him as well.

"You're absolutely right. However, one day someone will break your guard no matter what." The traitor smirked before his face was covered by purple gas.

The Mizukage didn't even notice the ninja set off the gas bomb. But as soon as he saw the purple substance, he knew he had to act quickly. He held is breath, not daring to inhale this unknown gas. He grabbed the other anbu and began to sprint away from death.

What happened next showed that Yagura's guard was broken by the sudden turn of events. He had closed his eyes in fear of the gas damaging his sight. This was a fault in his actions. He felt an unexpected heat creep up against his back then he heard a deafening explosion. He took a quick guess what had just happened: the traitor had blown himself up in attempt to kill the Mizukage with him.

Yagura ran several more yards before hurling himself onto the snow. He gasped for what he hoped was safe air; the flames on his clothes were quickly extingished when they came into contact with the snow. He slowly looked up at the pale blue sky as his chest rises and lowered, trying to make sence on what just happened.

The anbu who hadn't betrayed to Mizukage, took off his mask to catch his breath as well. He lifted it just above his mouth so his face wasn't completly exposed. "L-Lord Mizukage, I am for ever in dept for you have saved my life."

"Isn't that the whole point of a Kage? To protect his people?" The Mizukage glanced over to the ninja then looked over to where the other anbu blew himself up. "But I wasn't able to do that fully. I failed to see the meaning behind his actions and becuase of that, his life has been taken."

"B-But Lord Mizukage, no one would have thought that a well trusted anbu like him would turn rouge for no reason." The ninja dared to look over at the now dead ninja, regretting it instantly as the body was almost unrecognisable. "It was as if he wasn't in control of his actions."

"It is safe to say that he had a reason. And that reason was to kill me by any means necessary." Yagura shuddered at the thought of one of his most trusted anbu being controlled by a rivaling force.

The anbu gulped and walked over to the body slowly, half expecting there to be another explosion. "You don't think that one of the other Kage could have manipulated him whilst at the summit do you?"

"No. They wouldn't. They wouldn't dare do something so foolish. It would start a war and they know it would. "The Mizukage walked over to the body as well, deciding whether to carry the body back to the village or have the decency to berry the body. "But we can't cross that out as not being a possibility... it may be that they want to start a war."

Snow began to coat the body. A hole had formed in his stomach from the explosion; his blood stained the snow a dark red. What killed him first? The poisonous gas or the explosion? "It's not ideal carrying him back to the village as we'd be more prone to attacks. I also doubt any clues would have survived from the explosion that could help us evaluate what made him turn so suddenly. We shall bury him here..."

The anbu's eyes widen in surprise. It was very rare for an anbu to have a burial since there bodies were often never found - this happened mostly because an anbu would often sacrifice his life instead of allowing the possibility of an enemy learning the secrets of his or her village.

After several minutes, the body was buried under the dirt and snow; the snow that was stained by blood was flipped over to try and cover the loss of innocence. The Mizukage looked over where they had buried the ninja. "Let us go..." He knew it would only make things more difficult if he allowed emotions to interfere with what just happened. "There was already going to be many things to get through when we got back from the summit and now it seems I've got a family to inform that a member of their family was killed in action.

Killed in action? Did that mean that the Mizukage believed that the anbu was not a traitor and was not in control of his actions. The ninja walked after his leader. Could it be that what the Hokage was talking about earlier happened to one of their own ninja? What would have been worse? One of the Kage controlling the now dead anbu or the 'Akatsuki' controlling him?

Both of the ninja walked towards the village, leaving the body to rest in peace without ever finding out that he was only a mere puppet to a rouge ninja who would be satisfied with this outcome, even if he had failed killing Yagura and unleashing the Three Tails.

It had been several days since the Five Kage Summit and Minato was pacing up and down his office. The next Chuunin Exams were just around the corner. The Hidden Mist had already made a statement that they wouldn't take part in it this time due to security reasons. This may persuade smaller villages to participate in the Chuunin Exams since there is less intimidation from larger villages but may also stop some since they may find it suspicious that such a large village has chosen to state that they're not taking part months before it even began.

Minato heard a knock on his door and sat down at his desk. He cleared his throat and took a quick glance out of the window behind him. "Enter." He sat straight, having a feeling who it would be on the opposite side of the door.

The shinobi walked over to the desk and placed a scroll on the Hokage's desk. "Mission completed Minato Sensei."

Minato sighed with a slight smile on his face. "You're never going to call me 'Hokage' are you?" He slowly looked up at the navy blue haired shinobi.

"Eh... Maybe some day." The shinobi looked at Minato with his eye. "Well anyway that's the Sand Village's confirmation that they are taking part in the Chuunin Exams." He tapped the scroll that he had just placed on the desk. "So what village should I go to next?"

The Hokage slowly stood up and faced the window, looking down at the village. "That is the last village you'll have to go to for now Obito. I will inform you when I require you to go to another village soon."

Obito sighed. "Really? That's it for now? Well I'll see myself out then Sensei." He searched the back of his head and walked towards the door.

But before Obito could reach the door, the Hokage began to talk again. "Tomorrow's the day that the genin meet with their jonin captain." He said this whilst looking out of the window still.

Obito raised an eyebrow and slowly turned around. "Oh? You've left that quite late don't you think? It's already been about three weeks since they had their final exams."

Minato took a deep breath before turning back around. "Yes, well I've been caught up with the Kage Summit and the planning for the Chuunin Exams so it was delayed for a while. But gladly, I've finally chosen the teams. And you know who is with Naruto."

"I know who?" Obito had to think for a few seconds. "Ohh right. I'm still surprised that they chose to become a Jonin Leader."

Minato chuckled and sat down. "Oh? I always thought that out of the three of you that person was the most suited to become a Jonin Leader."

Obito thought about the new Jonin Leader for a little. "Hmm... well out of the three of us I guess you're right." He looked over the Hokage's shoulder and out the window with his left eye - his right eye covered up. "So the new generation of ninja will start tomorrow."

"Yes the new generation. I wonder if this generation will stand out from the rest." The Hokage grinned to himself and leant back on his chair.

Obito smirked and crossed his arms. "Your just saying that because your son is one of the new genin."

Minato couldn't help but smile. "That may be part of the reason but this year there seems to be even more unique shinobi coming from the academy."

Obito smiled as he looked at Minato before turning around. "Oh you think? Well maybe these 'unqiue' shinobi will be able to participate in the upcoming Chuunin Exams." The Uchiha slid his hands into his pockets and let out a sigh. "Well, if I don't see him, tell Naruto I said good luck for tomorrow. We both know his Sensei will most probably be strict on him."

When Obito left the room, Minato looked back down at the papers sprawled out across his desk. Twenty four children had passed the exam this year but it was very unlikely that they would all officially become genin - some would be sent back to the academy. Minato picked out three of the groups he had formed and laid the sheets of paper with the information on them in front of him.

First there was Ino, Shikamaru and Choji. These three were an obvious team of three since their clans had strong bonds with one another and the past success of the InoShikaCho formation was one that could be recreated.

Next there was Shino, Sakura and Kiba. Two of them specialised in tracking and searching where as the other had excellent intelligence about the context of being a ninja. Both skills could combine and work in a very successful way.

The third group consisted of an Uchiha, a Hyuga and an Uzumaki. One of them was good at genjutsu, the other specialised in taijutsu and the other had a rapidly growing improvement in fūinjustu. Each set of skills could possibly sync together nicely. But also, this group of ninja would hopefully keep the bond between the three clans strong.

Minato put the information back into a file then looked up at the clock. It was getting late; the outside was slowly being consumed by the darkness of the night. The Hokage stood up whilst took one last glance at his bundles of paperwork before leaving his office and going home.

The morning came around quick but then dragged out for the Uzumaki. His mother and father (who was surprisingly not at work) were both there in the morning to wish him good luck on his first day as a ninja. But soon after, he, Sasuke and Hinata were the last ones left sitting in the classroom as they waited for their Sensei.

All the other students had met and left with their Sensei at least fifteen minutes ago. During this short, but what seemed to the Uzumaki as long, period of of time Naruto had thought of what he believed to be one of his greatest schemes all day. He had placed a board eraser on the top of the door in such a way that when it's opened the eraser will hit the victim on the head. (that is if someone is foolish enough to not see the eraser in the first place).

Neither of the other ninja decided to stop him. Well, Sasuke couldn't care less what Naruto did and even if Hinata wanted to object to his actions, she was much too timid. In fact, in the last fifteen minutes she had been attempting to mentally tell herself that she shouldn't faint -no- she couldn't faint today. Or any other day in fact now that her swooning would make her reputation as a ninja become negative very quickly.

Naruto heard footsteps that were becoming increasingly louder. He grinned to himself and quickly sat down, determined that his plan would work.

The other two also looked over at the door. Even though they were sure a Jonin would never fall for such a simplistic prank, they wanted to at least see the outcome.

As the door opened, the three genin saw the face of their jonin leader for the fist time and also how foolish the jonin looked for falling for Naruto's cliché prank.

* * *

 _ **I'm very sorry that this chapter has taken so long to come out. I have been so caught up with coursework and exams that I've struggled to find time to continue with this but I will continue to keep this story going.**_

 _ **Some of you have been saying that I've been staying too close to the canon so I'll be trying to create an original set of events in the upcoming chapters.**_

 _ **Thank you all for your support and I hope you will continue to support me in the future as well :)**_


	19. Chapter 19: Team 8

The Jonin hurried through the corridor where they would meet the team of genin that the shinobi would be the leader of, "Ah, not got. Late on my first day. I hope this doesn't set a bad example to the genin." The shinobi reached the door of the classroom and the first thing that was noticed was the board marker on top of the door.

"Oh? And which out of the three would have done that?" The shinobi smirked and made a clone that looked identical to the ninja Kakashi. The clone slid open the door, the board marker hitting the clone on the head before it had taken its first full step into the classroom.

All three of the genin watched in complete surprise as the board marker hit the head of the 'skilled' jonin that was supposed to be their leader. But before they could get a good luck at this individual, he was submerged in smoke as the transformation jutsu wore off. Now the clone had his right eye covered up instead.

Naruto gasps and pointed over at the jonin, "No! No way are you our Sensei Obito! There's no way you'd be qualified."

The Uchiha folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Naruto, "Hmph. You'd be lucky to have me as a Sensei."

Naruto was then distracted by the sudden thud next to his feet. He looked down in confusion at the board maker then looked at the other two genin to see their reaction. However, to the Uzumaki's surprise the two of them were looking to the back of the classroom and he quickly mimicked them.

Sasuke Uchiha looked to the back of the classroom with slight surprise but boredom was the dominant feeling at the moment, 'well, I guess it's a good thing our Sensei didn't fall for Naruto's foolish prank.'

Hinata Hyuga looked to the back of the classroom with slight shyness as she pushed her index fingers together, 'I didn't think that a transformation jutsu on top of another transformation jutsu was possible. Furthermore our sensei was able to use it on a clone.'

Naruto Uzumaki looked to the back of the classroom with a puzzled look on his face to begin with before he realised the individual, "Rin! Are you our Sensei!?"

The jonin nodded and looked at the three of them with her brown eyes. "That's right. However, even though I'm late you three barely put any effort into that 'prank'." She nodded down to the board marker. "And as punishment for your lack of effort you all have to do five laps around the outside of the building."

"W-What!?" Naruto quickly went to defend his team mates, "I'm the one who made the prank so I'm the only one who should have to run around the building." The yellow haired child glanced over to Hinata and Sasuke as he spoke.

Rin Nohara crossed her arms as she thought. 'hmm, well there's responsibility in the team but there seems to be a lack of teamwork and the actions of the other two seem to be repressed for some reason.' She nodded after she had finished thinking, "Alright, Naruto you will do eight laps around the building. I expected better from someone who is acquainted with Obito. As for you two..." She looked over to the Hyuuga and Uchiha, "You will both do four laps around the building for your lack of participation."

The Uchiha's eyes widened in disbelief, "Seriously!? We're being punished for NOT helping Naruto with his prank?"

Rin nodded, "That's right. From now on you must work together as a team and therefore will face the consequences of each other's actions together."

"Hang on." Naruto chimed in, "Shouldn't you also have to do laps around the building as punishment for being late?" He crossed his arms and grinned.

The Jonin clenched her left hand into a fist, obviously not enjoying being told what to do by a genin who created a prank with so little effort put into it, "That's 10 laps for you now Naruto. Now all three of you get going. I expect you to be done in the next fifteen minutes."

The Uzumaki watched Rin clench her fists and gulped. 'C-Crap! She's just like mom!'

The three genin eventually finished their punishment, luckily under the time Rin wanted them to do it in. All four of them stood in a field together. The jonin crossed her arms and looked down to her three students, "Now, I could you three to tell me what your most powerful skill is and your weakest skill. I would also like you to tell me what you would like to achieve as a ninja. I'll start to give you an idea of what to say..." she looked up to the clouds as she collected together her thoughts.

"My name is Rin. My most powerful skill I'd say is my medical ninjutsu and my weakest would probably be my genjutsu. What would I like to achieve as a ninja? Well teach the future generation of the village to become fully skilled shinobi. And that's why I'm your Sensei." She smiled sweetly at them all then focused on Hinata. "Now, ladies first."

"H-huh?" She blushed slightly and pushed her index fingers together as it was almost a natural habit. "O-oh my name is Hinata Hyuuga. My most powerful s-skill is taijutsu I guess and m-my worst skill is most probably ninjutsu... and genjustu... and medical ninjutsu. And what I'd like to achieve as a ninja? Well I guess I would like to obtain at least half the strength my parents' have... or at least a fraction of what my cousin's strength." She slowly raised her head to look at her Sensei, not sure what kind of reaction she would have as her emotions seemed to change with every passing minute.

'Hmm... it seems that she doesn't have much abilities in her abilities, hopefully we can work on that.' Rin nodded gently. "Thank you Hinata." She turned her focus over to the Uchiha. "Alright Sasuke, you're up."

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. My strongest skill is taijutsu and my weakest is most probably medical ninjutsu. As a ninja I want to achieve greater, more powerful sharingan than my brother so I will no longer be looked down apon for not being as powerful as my sibling." The Uchiha didn't make eye contact once with his Sensei whilst speaking.

'So... we have two ninjas that specialise in taijutsu but in different ways due to their different clans. Their objectives also both seem to be related to their families.' Rin looked down to Sasuke. "Thank you Sasuke." She raised an eyebrow as she looked over towards the next genin. "Now, last and hopefully not least, Naruto."

The Uzumaki adjusted the headband on his head. He grinned giddily at his teacher. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. My best skill would be in fūinjustu and my weakest would probably be ninjutsu... no, genjutsu. As a ninja I want to achieve the greatest status possible: Hokage. Then when I'm Hokage everyone will see my skills as an individual instead of being seen as the Hokage's son and my skills being pushed aside becuase of who everyone sees me as... for now at least."

Rin looked down at the confident Jinjuriki. 'I guess it is not much of a surprise that he has the same goal that his mother and father had -even the same goal that Obito has to this day. But I doubt being skilled in fūinjustu will help people change their judgement of him based on his father though. In addition some people may fear him obtaining such a high title such as Hokage since he is a Jinjuriki. Nonetheless I'll try my best to help them all become the best ninja's they possibly can and hopefully help Naruto control the Nine Tails if needed.'

"Hello? Rin Sensei?" Naruto waved a hand in front of the jonin whilst she was deep in thought.

"Hm?" She slowly looked down at her pupil. "Oh, sorry I was just planning what I'm about to do next with you guys."

"Do next?" The Uzamaki's eyes lightened up. "Oh! Does that mean we're already getting pur first mission!?"

Rin laughed at his eagerness. "Not exactly Naruto. I just want to test all three of your skills. Even though you've told me your strengths and weaknesses, I still want to see them so I know how much training we have ahead of us." She grinned confidently at her students. "All you have to do is team up and attack me. To succeed and finish today's training you have to break my defence and land a successful attack on me."

"You sound very vein." Sasuke finally looked up to Rin's eyes, "Even though we're just genin, it's not going to be difficult to land at least one attack on you."

The leader slowly smirked, almost in a sadistic manner, "That's correct. It shouldn't be difficult. Therefore if you are unable to land one attack between the three of you before the sun sets, then you all go back to the academy."

Hinata and Sasuke expressed their opinion with a shocked, "What!?" However, Naruto did not understand the full extent of the punishment. "Why? What's waiting for us back at the academy."

Hinata looked over towards Naruto whilst she pushed her index fingers together, "N-Naruto, I think she means that we'll go back to the academy and no longer be genin."

"What!?" The Uzumaki expressed his outrage as well after a couple of seconds, "You can't do that! We've just became genin. You can't take it away from us that easily!"

"And why can't I? I don't think there is any rule saying I can't do that. Besides, if you can't successfully land an attack on me then I believe you're not suited to be a ninja." Rin shrugged, "I'm sorry but my first step as your sensei is to make sure I'm not putting you into any immediate danger from you being unfit to be a genin."

The Uzumaki looked down to the ground, "So to land a successful attack we just have to surround you with attacks then huh? You couldn't possibly defend against all of them." He smirked and hand a hand sign, creating five shadow clones.

Sasuke's eyes widened, 'What? How can this idiot make five clones so easily when back in the academy he couldn't even make one?'

Rin's eyes widened a little as she saw the clones, 'So I guess that this is the forbidden technique that Minato Sensei was talking about. However...' she crouched down and put a hand behind her red stockings, "Well you seem to be eager to begin. However, take a word of advice: you'll be more successful with the three of you working together rather than attacking me individually." She grabbed a smoke bomb and threw it down to the ground before Naruto's clones had the chance of attacking.

The Hyuuga and Uchiha jumped backwards to avoid the cloud of smoke where as Naruto did not react as fast and was engulfed in the grey smoke. He coughed and attempted to fan away the smoke from his face with his hand. "That's such a cheap trick!"

"Even if you classify that as a 'cheap trick' it still worked Naruto." Sasuke glanced over to the fading cloud of smoke before he ran off in search for Rin, obviously ignoring her last piece of advice.

By the time Naruto had escaped the cloud of gas, he saw Sasuke running off towards the trees to the right of him. He dashed off, leaving Hinata behind.

"S-Sasuke! N-Naruto!" The purple haired girl watched as her two teammates went in search for their sensei. She sighed softly, "She suggested we worked as a team." She shook her head and rushed after her.

Naruto wondered around the forest, kicking a pebble as he walked, "Ah great, I've lost sight of all three of them." He whistled as he looked up at the trees. However, his attention was quickly attracted down to a bush several metres in front of him. He quickly grabbed hold of his kunai and threw it at the bush.

But nothing came out from the bush. Instead Rin jumped down infront of Naruto from the trees. "You're acting is terrible. Did you ever expect me to believe that you were lost?" She got into an attacking stance, ready to ruin whatever plan Naruto had come up with.

The Uzumaki looked up to the jonin. "Well it still brought you put into the open." He put his hands behind his backs to make a hand sign that Rin wouldn't see.

Several Naruto clones jumped out from every direction around Rin. Her eyes widened in shock. "What!? But how did you manage to create clones from different locations?" She jumped backwards, kicking one of the clones down to the ground.

Naruto crossed his arms and chuckled. "I spent the last five minutes placing down sealed scrolls around this area, each with a clone sealed away. When I made a hand sign behind me it wasn't to create shadow clones, it was to release the seal on the scrolls."

"I see..." Rin stood still as she looked at the clones all around her. The next second, they had all disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Rin walked past the smoke and towards Naruto.

The Uzumaki's eyes widened in shock. He never saw Rin move. So how was she able to defeat all of his clones at once? He gulped and took a step back as the woman stepped closer to him.

The next thing Naruto sees is Rin walking past him. But how? She was several feet away a second ago. She smirked as she passed Naruto. "Checkmate. I told you that you should have attacked me as a team."

Naruto spun his body around to look at Rin. However, all his eyes saw was darkness heading towards him. It was as if someone had blocked the sun and the light was slowly disappearing from his eyesight. But the darkness wasn't only creeping its way towards Naruto. North, East, South and West; each side was slowly becoming submerged by the darkness and left Naruto in a small box of light.

As the darkness crept up to the Uzumaki, his heart beat continuously increased. As soon as the darkness touched his foot, he felt a burning sensation appear on the parts of his body that were being dominated by the darkness. He let out a scream filled with pain and fear - which was the only way he could think of defending himself against this immortal enemy.

He closed his eyes in fear of what was going to happen next. He felt a human touch on his shoulder which made him open his eyes. The darkness was gone. He looked behind him and saw the Hyuuga looking slightly worried at him, "Hinata! What happened?"

"You were in a genjutsu." Hinata had her byakugan turned on until Naruto asked the question. "I could tell becuase your flow of chakra was being interrupted." She pressed her index fingers together. She was shocked when she saw the large amount of chakra flowing through his body - it was as if he was receiving chakra from another person constantly along with his own chakra.

The Uzamaki's eyes widened a little. "You can see my chakra? That's awesome." He chuckled before shaking his head. "I almost forgot about our task. Thanks for helping me out of that genjutsu there Hinata!" He turned around, ready to dash off in hope to find Rin.

"W-Wait Naruto-kun." The purple haired girl's face flushed red. "D-Dont you think we should try and team up to attack Rin?"

Naruto turned back around to look at the timid girl. "Huh? Oh but I'm sure I can defeat her myself now that I know how she attacks."

Hinata wasn't so sure. She had a feeling that their jonin teacher was just toying with them and she probably had only shown a fraction of her skills, "I know but... We could at least try it. I mean it's always useful to have support just incase you need it."

He couldn't deny what Hinata was saying. If it wasn't for her he would probably still be in that genjutsu. "I suppose your right. I guess it won't hurt if we try to attack her together." Naruto grinned at Hinata and began to run, "Let's go Hinata!"

"Uhmm Naruto-kun?" She pointed in the opposite direction where Naruto was going to run, "Rin is in that direction. I checked with my byakugan earlier."

The Jinjuriki blushed slightly as it had been the second time Hinata's teamwork had helped him,"Oh. Then let's go that way." He chuckled and ran off in the other direction.

Whilst Hinata and Naruto were travelling towards their sensei, she was in the middle of dodging all of Sasuke's attacks. Thr majority of the Uchiha 's moves were predictable. It wasn't that his skill in taijutsu wasn't good, it was that his skill was limited. However, what happened next amazed the jonin. She watched as Sasuke's eyes turned from a dull black to a blood red.

'what!? But how is that possible at such a young age? Yes his brother unlocked it at a young age but Sasuke hasn't had to go through the pain and struggles of war. So what happened that made his sharingan awaken?'

Sasuke was now able to see Rin's moves much faster and could predict which direction she was about to go to dodge his attack. However, Rin has had countless hours of training with two ninja's that posses the sharingan so she was able to trick Sasuke by starting to move in one direction but speed up quickly and move in another direction. Besides, Rin wasn't throwing many attacks at the Uchiha so it was difficult for him to even try and counter her.

Just when the situation looked hopeless for the sharingan possessor, a ninja ran up behind Rin and thrusted her palm towards Rin. However, the jonin had heard the footsteps of the ninja and knew that they were about to attack. She ducked to avoid the sudden attack from Hinata and jumped away from both of them. She faced both of them and smirked, "Nice try."

The next thing that Rin felt was unexpected. She felt two pair of hands grab hold of her arms and hold them behind her back. She looked behind her and her eyes widened in shock when she saw Naruto. She lowered her gaurd because she thought that he would have still been trapped, 'But how did he escape the genjutsu?'

The Jonin looked forward again and saw the two ninja in front of her. Sasuke held a kunai close to her whilst Hinata had her palm close to Rin's stomach. They didn't attack their jonin as they felt that it would be wrong to do so whilst she was defenceless.

"What are you doing!?" Naruto exclaimed. "Attack her now then we win!"

Rin chucked softly and looked at all three of them, "It seems you all have me cornered." She smiles sweetly. "You three will not go back to the academy. You all pass."


	20. Chapter 20: Jinjuriki Genin

Naruto, Hinata and Sasuke. All three of their eyes filled with hope (even Sasuke's) as their jonin leader told them that they had successfully passed and were not going back to the academy.

"Yes!" Naruto pumped his fist into the air whilst he smiled like an idiot but then suddenly looked up at Rin after letting her go, "There better not be any more tests for us to become genin.,"

Rin shook her head and smiled, "Nope. That was the one and only task I needed all three of you to complete to make sure that you could work as a team. Your corporation with one another is not perfect and has to go through improvement but it's good enough for you three to form a team with me."

The Uzumaki continued with his celebration after hearing Rin. He grabbed both of Hinata's hands and grinned, "You were right Hinata! Thanks to your idea of working together we passed."

"O-oh, you're welcome. I was just glad that I was of some help to everyone." She looked down at her hands being held with Naruto's and in consequence, she felt her face becoming hot. She was glad to feel the warmth of his hands against hers but she feared that if he held on for any longer that she would faint right where she was standing.

"Yes, so all of you relax and get a good amount of rest tonight because we'll all be meeting up tomorrow for our first mission as team seven."

"Our first mission!?" Naruto grinned ear to ear, "What are we going to be doing? Escorting a celebrity? Infiltrating an enemy's base? Defending the village against an army worth of enemies?"

Rin laughed softly to herself. "Well, something like that."

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes as he thought to himself, 'Idiot! Does he really think we'd be doing anything even close to those types of missions at genin level?' His thoughts were quickly proven to be correct after Naruto's reply to Rin's sarcasm.

"Then I'll go straight home to train for tomorrow and go to bed early!" The Uzumaki then dashed away to his house.

Hinata watched as Naruto ran back to his house. She then turned back around to focus her attention of Rin, "W-We're not actually going to be doing anything similar to what Naruto-kun said a-are we?"

Rin rolled her eyes and placed her hand on top of Hinata's head, "Do I really need to answer that for you? I'm sure you know the awnser already." She smiled gently and began to walk away, "I'll see you tomorrow morning. Don't be late."

"And then Hinata went to attack her with some Hyuuga technique. And when she was distracted, I came up behind her and trapped her. And then we were able to get her into checkmate. So passed, ya know." Naruto looked up at the Uchiha he was talking to with a wide grin.

"So you were able to successfully work as a team in the end then?" Obito looked down at Naruto and returned the grin. "Well done! I suppose that was her own copy of Minato-Sensei's bell training exercise."

The Uzumaki tilted his head, "The bell what exercise?"

Obito shook his head, "Never Mind, what's important is that you passed and you are part of a four man squad."

"Heheh yeah I guess so." Naruto put his arms behind his head and raises an eyebrow, "But Rin Sensei seems to have a split personality. One second she seems kind and then the next she's telling me to run a ton of laps around the school building."

The Uchiha chuckled gently, "Well Rin is like that but she means well. I guess you could say that her personality is similar to your mother's."

When Obito said those words, something clicked inside of Naruto's mind, "Crap! I told mom that I would be home straight after training. I've got to go. I'll see you later Obito." Naruto then ran away from what was to be a small conversation from bumping into his friend.

Obito chuckled gently and shook his head whilst putting his hand in the air, "'I'll see you soon Naruto." He then turned around and continued on his route whilst he thought to himself, 'Multiple shadow clones? I would have never thought he would pass by creating more then the required amount of doppelgangers. He is improving quickly...'

As Naruto opened the front door to his house, he made sure to do so quietly. He was hoping that he could try to sneak upstairs and act like he had been up in his room. However, when he opened up the door, he slowly looked up and saw Kushina waiting for him. He gulped and felt his chest tighten in fear for what her reaction will be in the upcoming seconds, "I'm... I'm sorry mom I can-"

The boy's sentence was interrupted as his mother crouched down so she was at the same height as his. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck. She brought him closer to her so she could hug him properly. She grinned as she embraced him, "My son is now officially a genin. I'm so proud of you Naruto, ya know."

Surprisement began to fill Naruto's mind at his mother's actions. It was as if she didn't know - or didn't mind - that her child was late home. Naruto slowly smiled back and began to hug his mother back. "Thank you mom heheh."

Kushina slowly stood back up and looked down into the boy's blue eyes, "I made you something to celebrate. I made you a huge bowl of miso ramen just for you."

"Really!?" The genin's eyes lightened up with excitement, "You're the greatest mom!" He quickly ran into the kitchen.

The red haired mother smiled as she watched her child run into the kitchen, "Well you're a ninja now, you need to keep up your strength." And with that, Kushina walked into the kitchen with Naruto.

Naruto's time with the other members of team 10 began with a very slow start - this may have been because of Naruto's disappointment when he found out about the simplicity of the missions they would undertake. For the first two months, the missions that the genin undertook felt more like chores. Finding and capturing lost pets; Helping transport goods from one part of the village to another; Watering and planting crops. All three of the children were slowly becoming more frustrated with their missions but no one was annoyed as much as Naruto.

Sasuke and Hinata met up at the rendezvous point with Rin after helping carry countless bags of rice from a villager's house to his house. The jonin leader raised an eyebrow as she looked down at her two genin, "Where's Uzumaki? Shouldn't Naruto be with you two?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and looked away, "He went off somewhere."

Hinata looked at Sasuke and then up at Rin. She was worried that she would get annoyed at the lack of information. She took a deep breath before talking, "Uhmm he w-went to the Hokage's office to ask if we could have more challenging missions."

"Seriously!? He did that last week as well." Rin shook her head, "Come on, we should go and stop him before he digs himself any deeper into this mess." She sighed and ran towards the Hokage's office.

Rin knocked on the door to the office and before even waiting for a reply, she walked in. She knew that the consequences for rudely walking in probably wouldn't be as worse as letting Naruto continuing what ever he was doing. Normally Rin would grab Naruto and drag him out of the situation. However, since they were around his father she thought that it probably wasn't the best idea to do so.

She walked over to the genin and put a hand on his shoulder. She bowed her head. "I apologise for any disruptions Naruto has caused Lord Hokage."

The Hokage slowly shook his head, "It's quite alright Rin. Besides..." He slowly stands up and smiles, "... Naruto has a fair argument. Your team has successfully completed several D rank missions. I was thinking that we could try out a C rank mission for once."

"But Lord Hokage. You don't just 'try out' a harder mission. The genin must continue to work up to that level of missions. If not then they could be put in a dangerous situation." The jonin leader looked down to the floor, "Sorry, I didn't mean to make that sound so rude."

"It's fine Rin. I'm sorry I didn't make myself clear enough." Minato glanced at the three genin then back up at Rin, "The three of them are definitely capable of completing a C rank mission with no serious danger so there is nothing to fear about them at least trying to start C rank missions." He grinned, "Besides you're there to make sure they avoid any danger."

Rin sighed. She couldn't argue with the Hokage. Genin usually don't partake in missions above C rank missions or above but it was true that these three were rapidly improving, "I suppose your right. Have you got any C rank missions that we can start in the near future?"

"As a matter of fact I do. There's a C rank mission that you can start in a couple of days." Minato flicked through some files on his desk. "There's a village that I would like to send a scroll to. Now normally a mission of this sort would be much higher than a C rank but this village is in the Land of Fire and is only a few hours away from here so there really shouldn't be any danger."

Something was being hidden from the genin. Surely the Hokage wouldn't send a four man squad to just send a scroll to a village when he could just send a bird. Rin had a feeling that Minato would tell her the full description of the mission when the three children had left.

After a couple of minutes the genin left the office, leaving Rin to talk to Minato. All three of the ninja were excited but Naruto was the only one to express his excitement and joy to the fullest.

As they left the building, Naruto began to jump around. "Yes! Yes! Finally we won't have to do anymore crappy missions. We're finally going to do something exciting."

But of course, Sasuke stopped Naruto's prancing, "This mission is still going to be quite basic. All we're doing is delivering a scroll to a village then coming back." Sasuke was only excited as the news of him finally doing a higher rank mission might provoke the attention of his father.

Naruto shook his head. "Wrong. There's going to be so much more to it than that. We're going to have to fight off other ninja to stop them from stealing the scroll. And we'll have to watch out for traps on our journey as well."

"I'm sure your fathe- I m-mean the Hokage wouldn't put us in any danger like that Naruto-kun." Hinata bit her lip, hoping that almost calling the Hokage as Naruto's father wouldn't trigger any anger. She saw how people judged him. She believed that it was because he was the Hokage's son and she didn't want to sound like the Hokage wouldn't allow Naruto to dangerous missions because he was his son.

"Hinata's right Naruto." Sasuke sighed before he continued to talk, "The Hokage said it himself, this mission wouldn't have any serious risks. I highly doubt that he would lie."

"Ahah, he said any SERIOUS risks. That means there can still be risks." Naruto grinned ear to ear, "And that means I need to go and train as much as I can. I'll see you guys in two days for our mission!" Naruto chuckled and dashed off towards his house.

Sasuke shook his head, "How can a ninja be so foolish?" He slid his hands into his pockets and slowly walked towards where the Uchiha clan is situated.

Hinata sighed gently and smiled slightly to herself as she watched the Uzumaki run off, "I suppose I should start to prepare for the mission as well." She said quietly to herself then began to walk back to her house.

As the hours passed by, the sun began to drop below the hemisphere. By the time artificial lights began to light up, Minato finished up with his paperwork and began to head home. He hoped that Kushina would have been happy when Naruto came home and told her. He had played various scenarios of what her reaction may be through his head and hoped that that her real reaction would be somewhat positive.

The Hokage walked up to his doorstep and turned the door handle. Despite not being able to see Kushina's reaction on her face from outside, it was as if her emotions were surrounding the outside of the house. Minato gulped and slowly pushed the door open, "Hello, I'm home..."

The anger from Kushina seemed to physically radiate off her. She slowly walked over to Minato and clenched her fists, "You're letting OUR son go out of the village on a mission at only genin level. Are you insane!?"

Minato took a step back and rubbed the back of his head, "K-Kushina, many genin have went out of the village to do missions before." He slowly closed the door and looked into her eyes, "Besides, you know how much he's wanted to have more important missions. It's all he ever talks about ever since he became a ninja."

"So? If he told you that he wanted to participate in a war at only genin level would you let him after he begged for a couple of months?" Kushina glared at her husband.

"You know that it isn't the sane circumstances as that." Minato sighed and walked closer to the worried mother, "I know you don't want Naruto to go out of the village since he's our son. And also becuase he's a Jinchuuriki you fear that he'll be in even more danger." He placed his hand gently on her shoulder, "But the fact is, most of the other villages only know that the Nine Tail's Jinchuuriki is the Hokage's son. That's why we chose for Naruto to have your surname. And very few villages know what the Jinchuuriki looks like. He'll be in no danger at all."

"But you can't prove that Minato." She stared up into his eyes before looking down to the floor, "You can't promise me that he'll be in no danger whilst he's on the mission."

"Yes I can." The Hokage smiled gently. "Naruto is more than capable of defending for himself. He's improving as a ninja every day. Furthermore, Rin will be there and we know that Rin can defend and heal them I'd necessary." He slowly runs his hand through her long red hair, "I'll even have Kakashi to keep watch over them during the mission if that'll make you feel better."

Kushina tensed up a little. She didn't want her baby to go out into the open world, into the danger. But he wasn't as vulnerable as she kept making herself believe. Moreover, she didn't want to be the one to stop him after he came home so enthusiastic about his upcoming mission. She bit her lower lip. "I suppose he is in safe hands and it's only a C rank mission. Very well, Minato." She forced a smile and tried to push away her fear. "I'll allow Naruto to go on this mission."

Minato smiled and held his wife close. "Thank you Kushina. Naruto will be safe with Rin as his sensei. I promise you that," he ensured her whilst his hand gently ran through her red, silky hair.

Despite her fears, Kushina attempted to fill her mind and heart with confidence about Naruto's safety. She whispered, "Thank you, Minato," she leaned in and placed her lips against his before walking up the stairs with him. Naruto would surely be overwhelmed with happiness when he found out that his mother wants him to go on the mission.

Time passed quickly for Kushina for the next few days despite it dragging out for Naruto. Every day Naruto trained whilst his enthusiasm allowed him to get through the long wait. When the day of the mission finally came, his chest tightened and he couldn't stop smiling in the morning. There was only one thing that disrupted his happiness.

Kushina decided to come to the village gate with him to say goodbye. This wouldn't have been too bad however, the mother had to say goodbye and good luck in her own way. She held Naruto close to herself and smothered his face with kisses.

"Okay okay, mom. Yes I promise I will keep to the mission and not walk off. I'm not a baby." Naruto attempted to break free of his mother's grasp. Despite him failing, he continued to try and destroy the tight hold Kushina had on him a few time. He groaned and blushed slightly; he could feel the stares from his teammates hit his back.

The mother slowly stood back up and smiled gently down at her son. "You must promise me that you'll not do anything reckless." A furious aura began to surround her whilst her hair began to lift up as if it was being held. "Becuase if you get yourself or any of your teammates into danger, you'll be punished so severely that you'll never think about leaving the village again!"

Sweat began to drip down the boy's forehead. He took a couple of steps back and furiously nodded his head. "I-I promise I'll be on my best behaviour!" Naruto quickly turned around and dashed over to his team.

As Kushina watched the four ninja walk out of the gate, she felt a little doubt in her heart about if letting Naruto leave the village was the best idea. She shook her head and smiled whilst she waved, forgetting about the doubt inside of her.

Her son turned his head around and grinned whilst he waved back. Maybe his mother did have something to worry about because the world as they knew it was forecasted for a terrible storm soon to come.


	21. Chapter 21: Visual or Tailed Beat Power?

Birds chirped in the nearby trees as the team of shinobi travelled in the land of fire. Everything seemed to be peaceful, a perfect situation to complete any type of mission. Luckily for the ninja, no rain fell on their heads as they travelled to their destination. However, that did not mean their journey on the way back would be as warm and as quiet.

The village that the four ninja were required to go to was located on the outskirts of the border of the Land of Fire. It was known as the Hachō village. The village was a very peaceful one and therefore didn't require many ninjas. This means that they relied on other villages such as the leaf village whenever it came to missions that had the possibility of running into trouble. But this mission was surely not like that. It was a very low ranked mission which meant little to no danger for the shinobi. Because of this, Rin was certain that they would experience no danger entering the village.

When Rin and her genin handed the scroll over to the village, they were lucky enough to be offered a nights stay in a hotel in the village. Of course she accepted; The sun had began to set and she doubted that Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata would want to start heading back straight away without a break.

By the morning of the next day, all four genin were ready to leave the Hachō village. Rin has acquired a scroll to deliver back to her own village in the morning -most probably a reply to the scroll given to the village the night before. By the time the villagers had began to wake up, Rin and her team had already left.

"This mission was so boring. I wanted to fight some bad guys." Naruto sighed and yawned as he started to travel back to the Leaf Village.

Rin raised an eyebrow and looked behind her at the Jinjuriki. "I can guess how you wanted this mission to turn out but the majority of missions don't involve fighting enemies." She shook her head and looked forward again. "Besides, if you're so eager to fight then I'll train with you when we arrive back at the village."

Naruto glanced away from his Sensei and muttered, "It's not like I can attack you with full force during training since you're a girl."

Rin stopped leaping forward and rested her feet against the bark of the tree. She turned herself around on her heels and squinted at the Uzumaki. "Because I'm a girl? So if we were attacked by some 'bad guys' and they were women would you rather be killed or attack them?"

Unfortunately, Naruto didn't notice Rin had stopped moving and hit right into her back. If it wasn't for the slight chakra control he had, he would have fallen right off the branch. "What!? Uhmm oh err.." he took a few steps away from Rin and slowly looked up at her. "Well that's not really relevant, ya know."

"How is it not relevant." The jonin lent forward a little. "If you do-" Rin fell silent when she heard some rustling in a bush a couple hundred feet away. She looked over at Hinata and nodded over to the slightly moving bush.

If it were anyone else she had nodded to, they would have thought she was asking them to go over to the bush to inspect it. But Hinata didn't need to move to thoroughly inspect it. She placed her hands together to create a hand sign to activate her byakugan. She look over to the bush and gasped. Despite this sound of shock, it wasn't what was near the shrub that she was concerned about - It was Naruto.

Naruto had jumped towards the next branch to get a better view of what was in the bush. However, he nor Rin or Sasuke could see what Hinata could see. "No, Naruto-kun! Watch out!" The Hyuga hurled herself towards Naruto and grabbed hold of him, making them both fall to the ground instead of landing on the branch.

"What the heck was that for Hinata!?" Naruto whined and complained as he stood up. His question was then answered when an explosion was heard. As Naruto looked over to the direction of the explosion, his face went pale when he realised that Hinata saved him from, most likely, probable death.

"Hinata! Where are they?" Rin gave the two genin little time to get back onto their feet before she requested the information. She was almost certain that the movement in the bushes was just a trick. No. A trap.

As Hinata got back onto her feet, she quickly looked around the area in search for the culprit or culprits. "Ah! They're coming this way. There's three of them and they're about a couple of hundred metres away from you from behind."

Naruto slowly stood up after his saviour. Luckily, none of them landed on the floor in an awkward way that would have damaged any muscles or bones. He couldn't help but sence the adrenaline pumping through his body despite it being mixed with fear. He was reminded of the time in the forest with Mizuki.

The heart rate of the jonin began to increase. She bit her bottom lip and muttered, "shit." Why were these ninja's attacking them? What could they possibly want? Rin's eyes widen in slight fear at the possibility of them wanting the Tailed Beast. Yes, the secrecy of Naruto being the Jinjuriki was kept to it's best in the village but this didn't stop villagers telling acquaintances in other lands about the identity of the Nine Tails' Jinjuriki.

Before Rin could finish with her thoughts, the Uchiha next to her activated his sharingan and went in the direction that Hinata had informed them that the ninja were approaching them from.

Not even a glimpse of their attackers was seen by Sasuke before his jonin appeared in front of him and grabbed hold of him. She forced him to go back to the other two genin with her. Sasuke was shocked at her speed; she seemed to appear as fast as the Hokage or a Uchiha that he had known to have speed close to The Yellow Flash.

"Are you really that foolish Sasuke?" Rin glared at her student slightly. "These three ninja could be of jonin level of higher. You can't just jump straight into battle when knowing nothing about the enemy. So to begin with, we'll be more defensive than o-" A chill travelled through her spine and she quickly turned her head around. The enemy had arrived.

The byakugan had been deceived. There was not three ninjas but five. Hinata looked at the five strangers in confusion and fear whilst she thought to herself, 'I can see all five of their chakra systems but I could only sense three of them earlier. I... I had no idea that it was possible to trick the byakugan like this. But how did they do that?'

One of the ninja stepped forward. None of them wore a ninja headband, suggesting that they were a group of rouge ninja. The ninja smirked and held his hand out as he looked at the team of three genin and one jonin. "Hand over the byakugan and sharingan and no fighting will have to take place."

Rin looked at the head ninja shocked and slightly disgusted. "Is there any point in giving a command like that? No one would agree to something so ridiculous." Rin gritted her teeth. So it wasn't the Nine Tails they were after, it was the visual power the team held instead.

The man shook his head and chuckled. "It was worth a try. I was allowing you to chose an option where no blood had to be shed. But it seems that you are some kind of sadist." He grabbed hold of one of his kunai and ran towards the jonin.

Rin made hand signs as fast as she could when she realised the ninja was running towards her. "Water style: Water Bullets." She concentrated the chakra to the back of her throat then released they heavily concentrated chakra in the form of water.

Each bullet of water was dodged by the man. He ducked and swayed side to side when he needed to. He then took a lunge forward and slashed his kunai against Rin's throat.

Blood spilled out of the wound out of the wound whilst Rin's eyes widened in shock. However, to little surprise to the ninja, 'Rin' disappeared in a could of pure cloud and appeared as a log. She man smirked and looked around him as he realised all four of the ninja had gone. "If you had forgotten, there was another four sets of eyes watching you four whilst I attacked. You won't be able to hide for long." All five rouge ninja dispersed into different different directions to look for the ninja.

Eventually, each rouge had found each member of Team 8. One rouge each had found a genin and the other two, luckily, were Rin's problem. But surely Rin did not allow her team to leave each other's sight. Could it be that they lost sight of each other?

Hinata gulped and trembled as she tried to look intimidating towards the man, with brown hair and a scar across his forehead, who she was destined to find. Even if she found the rest of her team with her byakugan, she had ran out of time to try to reach then.

The man smirked as he stared down at the Hyuga. "My my, I didn't know that I would be so lucky today. Who would have thought I would be the one to give the byakugan to Saso-" He covered his mouth. "Whoops, I almost gave away the name of my master. Silly my."

Beads of sweat began to travel down Hinata's cheeks as she positioned herself into a fighting stance. She still hadn't said a word to her opponent.

The man chuckled. "My name is Gin by the way - I think it's necessary for you to know the name of your killer. But you don't need to tell me your name, Hinata." He smirked as he grabbed two kunai and two shiruken.

Both of the kunais and shiruken were thrown in the direction of the Hyuga. However, whilst they were in midair each item multiplied, then multiplied again. Instead of four weapons, there was now 16 sharp objects hurdling their way to the girl. Gin must have used some sort of doppelganger jutsu on the weapons before throwing them.

Despite this sudden change in amount of weapons, Hinata was prepared. She began to move her hands in multiple directions which made her chakra leak out in the form of countless, thin, blue lines. "Protective Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms."

As each kunai and shiruken came into contact with the shield, they dropped to the floor effortlessly. It was as if the lines of chakra absorbed the impact the weapons caused and left them with no energy left."

"Are you sure that was a wise decision? You used all of that precious chakra to deflect a few pieces of metal." Gin chuckled and shook his head as he picked up one last kunai and tossed it into the air.

As the mere kunai was thrown into the air, it multiplied in amount by twenty. But it didn't stop there, as each kunai froze in midair to re-position itself to aim towards the Hyuga's chest -they were being controlled like puppets.

Hinata knew what to do straight away. As soon as the weapons gained momentum, she once again formed the defensive lines of chakra around her. She was hoping that the rouge ninja couldn't use this unknown jutsu on a larger scale. This was because as the amount of objects needing to be reflected increases, the movement of her hands had to increase. However, she was already at her limit at how fast she could move her hands. If Gin were to throw anymore kunai simultaneously, it would mean that Hinata's projective shield would threaten not being able to deflect every single object.

"Checkmate." After Hinata had stopped her jutsu, Gin appeared behind her. He quickly grabbed her and held her with his arm around her neck which left her in a defenceless position. He sighs and smirks. "However, you're in luck! I've been told specifically not to harm you more than needed. So I'll have to carry your living body instead of dragging your dead body."

The Hyuga looked up at the strange man in fear whilst her heart threatened to rip out of her chest due to how hard it was pounding.

Sasuke blocked every hit the rouge shinobi delivered to him. In addition to this, the rouge ninja also blocked or dodged every attack Sasuke created. Both ninjas were in stalemate.

The Uchiha swung a kick towards the stranger's chest but it was blocked with his arms. The stranger attempted to take advantage of the situation by trying to grab Sasuke's leg. Despite the quick movement, the ninja failed because of the power of the sharingan. Sasuke quickly hurled himself backwards so the rouge ninja didn't grab a single hair off him.

As the rouge ninja landed swiftly onto the ground. She chuckled softly. The woman, who was known as Ikumi, held her hand out to the Uchiha. "Surely you've realised I've been holding back this whole time. I'll warn you one last time: just come with me and all this pointless fighting will end."

"I think it is I who has been holding back." Sasuke gritted his teeth and quickly formed the hand signs to activate a jutsu. "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu." He inhaled and concentrated his chakra into the back of his throat, just like Rin did earlier. However, it wasn't water that was released from his body. Instead, a magnificent ball of flames surrounded the area where Ikumi stood.

After a few seconds, the ball of fire dispersed and left a few plants to burn in the aftermath. There was no sign of Ikumi. Surely the ball of fire didn't completely disintegrate the rouge ninja. Whilst that thought ran through the boy's head, a chill stabbed into his back despite the immense heat left by the fire.

"Surely you didn't think such a cliché Uchiha jutsu would catch me off guard?" Iukmi pressed her hand against Sasuke's back which caused the boy to be hurled forward a few feet and then fall to the ground; a large amount of chakra was obviously built up in the woman's hand and then released all at one moment to make Sasuke fly forwards.

Straight after the blow, Sasuke attempted to get back onto his feet. However, his body now felt like it weighed a hundred times more then it did a few seconds ago. Whatever move Iukmi just used, it seemed to do more then just repel the Uchiha forward. Sasuke was now defenceless, he couldn't even lift an arm as he lay down on the dirt.

Naruto swung a kick at his rouge ninja. Then a punch to the chest. Then an elbow to the face. His use of he Shadow Clone Jutsu had improved quite a lot ever since he became a genin - he could now control how much chakra each clone received when he created them. Right now, the rouge ninja was fighting three Narutos simultaneously.

No substitution jutsu was used, the rouge ninja was directly hit by Naruto. He grunted qnd gritted his teeth as he glared at the Jinjuriki. He grabbed him by the leg and threw him towards a tree.

A crack was heard as Naruto's back hit against the tree. Fortunately, it was just a mere clone. Naruto and his last remaining clone looked up at the rouge ninja.

Naruto's opponent, Jinta, snarled at the young genin. "You're really starting to piss me off. Do you really only know that one jutsu?" He clenched his fists. His orders were to capture the yellow haired brat but not kill him; Jinta found this extremely difficult with his short temper.

"No, I know a few more. But I can use the shadow clone jutsu the best so I think I'll keep with it for the time being." However, like all ninja, Naruto did have a limit to the amount of chakra he could use. It was clear to him that he was becoming more dangerously close to that limit. If he were to exceed that limit, it was rumoured that death would be waiting for you. But as he had a Tailed Beast inside of him, not many people could even comprehend what would happen after be used up all of his chakra.

Jinta smirked through his anger. He knew straight away that the boy was running low on chakra. He defiantly had the upper hand in the situation now. All he had to do was wait for the fool to exhausted himself then knock him out cold with one hit.

In another unidentified area of the forest, Rin was panting heavily as she slumped against a tree. If she was having this much trouble with these two rouge ninjas, then it was most likely that her genin were facing the same difficulty. She held her arm and panted heavily, exhausted from her failed attempt of a offensive attack which consequently forced her to retreat and hide from the two rouge ninjas that were hunting for her.

Hinata, Sasuke, Naruto and Rin. All four of them were in a troubled situation with no apparent way of achieving a victory. The rouge ninjas had them either exhausted or trapped. They may have said their motives were to collect they visual powers contained in the team but it was more likely that their lust for power was focused on something much more dangerous; a beast that would work well alongside one of the visual powers the seemed so determined to collect.


	22. Chapter 22: The Plan

**"And that's the plan. We must all do our part in this for us to have any chance of succeeding." Run glanced from Hinata to Sasuke to Naruto. She takes a deep breath. "Those rouge ninjas caught us off guard and if it wasn't for Hinata then we would be at least one man down right now."**

 **After hearing the jonin's plan, all three begin had their doubts and of course Naruto was the first to voice his. "Wouldn't it just be easier to defeat them with our own strength skill instead of attempting this plan that might not work?"**

 **"To battle the enemy like that would be suicide!" Run glared at Naruto as he suggested such an idiotic idea. "These ninja were able to hide there chakra so Hinata's bakugan couldn't located two out of the five. Also, they already know we have two ninjas with visual powers where as we don't know the extent of their abilities."**

 **The Uzumaki looked down to his feet, unable to justify his idea. The Uchiha glanced at Naruto then back at Rin after thinking about the plan a few times over. "This plan may work but timing is crucial; if we are not all in the same situation at the same time then the plan will most likely not work."**

 **"We should also have a plan B." Hinata gently pressed her index fingers together whilst looking at her jonin leader. "J-Just in case we fail to get the timing right." She began to sweat as this was supposed to be a simple mission but now all four of their lives were at potential risk.**

 **Rin sighed. "You're both right. We need to quickly find a way to all measure a certain amount of time whilst being in different areas." She tapped her hand against her forehead as she tried to multitask what felt like a thousand different tasks. "And for a plan B, whilst your in your battles against one of the rouge ninjas, make sure you have a constant flow of chakra being transported to your feet. If plan A fails then we'll just have to pray that the rouge ninjas are distracted enough by the failure of the first plan which will give us an opening to try and escape." Rin pointed up to the sky. "The sun is currently in the direction of our village, we're not too far so use all your chakra and will power to escape back home if our first plan fails."**

 **Naruto scratched the back of his head whilst he chuckled nervously. "You're making it sound like we have no chance in hell of defeating these idiots. But this time we'll ambush them with an attack they know nothing about. Besides, this plan will surely throw them off their guard and give us the opportunity to defeat them.**

 **Just a minute ago, Naruto disliked this plan Rin had cane up with on the spot but now he was all for it. The job in leader sighed and shook her head. She grabbed something from her bag. "I have smoke bombs that have a delay of five minutes before going off. We can use these to know when we're about to ambush the enemy as well has creating a smoke screen for us to work in. I just hope five minutes in enough." Rin passed the spheres to each of her comrades before they dispersed from the area.**

All four of the Leaf Village ninja seemed to be in a position with no apparent plan of grasping the upper hand; it looked like it was checkmate. This defeat stayed still in the air until the non-physical clock told each ninja that five minutes had passed.

Jinta was impatient. He knew that the best way to succeed in this battle was to let the yellow haired brat waste the majority of his chakra so it would be child's play trying to abduct him. However, the battle became tedious and frustrating towards the rouge ninja. "I just have to bring him back alive, that doesn't mean I can't cut him up so it's easier to carry his body." Jinta lunged forwards towards the Uzumaki whilst he grasped a kunai in his hand with full intention to hurt.

Unexpected for both ninjas, the whole area was submerged into a blinding mist of white; Naruto had forgotten about the smoke bomb completely due to his mind only being concentrated on the battle. Naruto grinned to himself since he knew what was going to happen next in this situation of apparent chaos.

Both Jinta's arms and legs were grasped quickly and tightly by what seemed like a bunch of arms. Before the rouge ninja could even react to the sudden change in events, a figure appeared directly in front of him and swung a vicious kick into his face.

Naruto stretched his foot in circular motions after he landed the attack on Jinata. He looked down at the unconscious body and sighed quietly in relief. "Looks like Rin Sensei's plan A worked. But it might not work for everyone." The Uzumaki left the area, leaving Jinta's body in the dirt as it waited to be found or for him to regain consciousness - whichever came first.

Hinata closed her eyes tightly in fear as she began to have doubts. What if her battle had ended much too quickly? What if her smoke bomb was faulty? Her whole body trembled whilst being held by Gin. She began to focus on her breathing as she attempted to calm herself down. By doing so, it took her a few seconds to realise that herself and the rouge ninja were surrounded by a white cloud.

Hope surged through the Hyuga's body straight after her realisation of the situation. This then allowed a strike of confidence to be shown in her actions. Before the plan could reach its climax, Hinata sunk her teeth into the flesh in front of her - Gin's arm- in attempt to break free of his grasp.

"Argh, you bitch!" The rouge ninja gritted his teeth and instinctively jerked his arm away from the Hyuga. Consequently, this caused the ninja to lose possession of the girl.

No time was wasted after Gin lost his hold on Hinata. She quickly leapt forward away from his grasp whilst her heart rate felt like it couldn't possibly increase any more. But she knew she couldn't waste even a second in this situation as it could cost her the battle.

Gin began to struggle and curse as eight figures began to grab hold of his limbs and hold him up in a straight position. The smoke was so thick that Gin couldn't even see the Hyuga who was a couple metres in front of him. Despite this, he would not have paid much attention to her anyway even if he could see her as he was focused on trying to get these eight annoying brats away from him.

That was his final error. His position was within distance of the Hyuga's unique ninjutsu. "Gentle Fist 8 Trigrams 32 Palms." Hinata may have not perfected the jutsu to all of the way 64, but she could only pray that her limitation would be enough to finish the battle. She appeared in front of Gin with her byakugan activated. "2 palms... 4 palms..." Every time she doubled the amount of chairs points she closed down, the speed at which she did so increased as well. "...8 palms... 16 palms... 32 palms!" When she delivered the last hit to his chairs points, she brought a considerable amount of chakra to her hands and hurled Gin back a metre or so when the chakra came into contact with his body.

Despite not all of his chakra points being closed, the fact of the majority of them being shut down meant that Gin wasn't able to get back on his feet at this point in time. Hinata took this to her advantage and quickly left the scene of the event before the smoke had lifted.

As Hinata left the rouge ninja behind, she began to search for the rest of her comrades that could potentially need help in their own battles.

Gin looked up at the trees whilst the fog began to diffuse into the atmosphere. He gritted his teeth. "Damn Hyuga brat..."

Something dug into Sasuke's chest, something he was laying on whilst he could regain his posture to fight against the woman in front of him. He closed his eyes as he counted in his head. He had been roughly counting to five minutes ever since he was given the smoke bomb. "299... 300!" A few moments after Sasuke finished counting, his defenceless body was hidden within the thick cloud of smoke that appeared.

Ikumi was caught off guard by the smoke that suddenly appeared and before she could even move out of the gas, she felt herself being held in place by some unknown reason. She glanced down and noticed eight identical yellow haired brats holding her so she was unable to attack Sasuke. "Heh, nice try kid but you still can't do anything whilst you can't even get off the ground. For now this may seem like a stalemate but I'll finish this pathetic battle off after I remove these annoying clones off me. " Ikumi moved her body around in attempt to break free of at least one clones grasp.

The smoke began to disappear and Ikumi had managed to remove three out of the eight clones that had clung onto her. "Looks like your foolish plan didn't work after all. Sasu-" Her eyes widened when she noticed one of the clones running towards her.

But that was not a clone, it was the real Naruto Uzumaki. But Ikumi reacted fast, she grabbed hold of one of the clones and hurled it towards the Jinchuuriki, which caused him to be struck down into the dirt.

Ikumi believed that she had now won the battle but Naruto, like the rest of his clones, was playing the role of distracting the rouge ninja whilst the real attack came from behind. Hinata used her gentle fist to shut down as many vital chakra points as she could; she didn't have enough energy to close as many points as she did with Gin but she was able to use the Hyuga technique on a significant amount of chakra points to force the rouge ninja down onto her hands and knees.

"What the hell are you still doing on the ground? Get up!" Naruto had rushed over to Sasuke and stared down at him in confusion as to why he was laying in the dirt with no visible injuries.

The Uchiha rolled his eyes then glared upwards at Naruto. "Do you really think I'd be just staying like this if I had the choice? That rouge ninja used some kind of jutsu on me and now my body feels as if it weighs a hundred times more than it actually does." He shook his head. "Besides, how did you even know I was in trouble?"

Naruto crouched down and helped his teammate onto his feet. "It was thanks to Hinata. She found me with her byakugan then told me the situation you were in. We then came up with a quick idea to help you out and get you the hell out of here." Naruto was able to help Sasuke back onto his feet without any difficulty, it was most likely a genjutsu that the rouge ninja used on Sasuke as he seemed to be the only one who could feel the affects of the jitsu.

Hinata hurried over to the two boys and helped Naruto support Sasuke. "We need to go and help Rin Sensei out now, it seems that she's still in the middle of her battle and there's three sources of chakra close to her."

"Three!? But there was only five rouge ninja's and we've only defeated three of them. This can't be a good sign." Naruto shook his head as he and Hinata began to jump through the trees whilst equally helping Sasuke stay up straight.

Ikumi managed to get back onto her feet but she was also now feeling as if she weighed a hundred times more than she did. She grasped a kunai in her left hand and watched as the three genin traveled into the distance. "I can't believe I was fooled by a group of privileged piglets. Master Sasori will definitely change to plan B if we return back to him empty handed."

The woman slowly began to walk through the forest in the same direction Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata were heading. Every step she took felt like she was stepping on burning metal. However, the fear building up in her body allowed her to continue through the pain as she knew she'd be never be able to take steps so freely again if the five rouge ninja came back to Sasori without a tailed beast or a visual power.


	23. Chapter 23: Minato's Chosen Shinobi

Fifteen hours had passed since dawn had reached this side of the world. The heat of the summer began to die down as the sun began to set. A breeze could be felt in the air whilst the cloudless sky began to fade into a deep colour of red. The end of the day had begun.

Rin was running out of time as well of plans. She may have been a jonin but fighting two rouge ninja with no previous knowledge of their skill had proven to be quite the challenge. However, throughout this struggle, Rin was able to keep a mental countdown similar to how Sasuke had been doing. "3... 2... 1...!" The jonin was engulfed in a gas cloud which allowed her to stay hidden from her opponents whilst she waited for the rest of the plan to take place.

But the next stage of the plan never commenced. None of Naruto's clones appeared to aid in the battle and instead Rin was filled with dread. When the smoke had diffused into the atmosphere, the jonin understood why the plan didn't go according to plan.

One of the two rouge ninja held up a torn scroll - which rendered it useless - to present it to his enemy. "Surely you didn't think such an armature jutsu would be able to change the tide of this battle?" He grinned whilst looking at Rin as he enjoyed her attempt to hide her disparity.

"Besides." The other rouge, Aiko, walked behind Rin. The job in was unable to do anything in this situation since if she tried to attack one enemy then the other would attack her back. "Leaving a scroll filled with chakra probably wasn't the best decision for a surprise attack." Aiko lifted her leg and brought her foot into contact with Rin's lower back and consequently bringing the woman down onto the floor.

Pain surged towards Rin Nohara's back then to the palms of her hands and knees as she tried to break her fall. She turned her head and gave Aiko a glare. "What exactly do you want?" She still had doubts about the true intentions of these rouge ninjas but she didn't want to give away any information away because of the possibility of them not knowing there was a Jinchūriki within the group.

The other rouge ninja, Jiro, grabbed a fist full of the jonin's hair as she shot daggers with her eyes over to his ally. He forced Rin to look up at him whilst he answered her question. "We've already told you why we're here. We're here to take the byakugan and sharingan for our own benefit."

"And what benefit could that possibly be?" Rin gritted her teeth due to a mixture of pain and anger. "You'd be wanted throughout the world for killing children from two highly respected clans to obtain power."

Jiro grinned, almost as if he predicted she would ask such a question. "Oh? But plans involving stealing clans' powers through such innocent members have been used throughout shinobi history. I do remember the story of such an event happening several years ago when The Land of Waves stole the byakugan for their own benefit."

"But our benefit of taking these visual powers may be slightly different from those of The Land of Waves. You see..." Aiko crouched down and pressed a kunai against the back of Rin's neck. "With those visual powers we'll be able to control a certain type of beast."

Rin felt her heart beat drastically increase in speed. She decided to finally discover the extent of the knowledge the rouge ninjas had on her team of genin. "I'm guessing you think you could attempt to use the sharingan to try and control the Mizukage's tailed beast then?"

"Well why settle with The Three Tails when we can have the much more powerful Nine Tails." Jiro chuckled with enthusiasm. "But you're not wrong, we'll also go after The Three Tails soon after releasing the tailed beast from that Jinchūriki brat in your team.

Fear and anger began to drown Rin's heart. She gritted her teeth. " You damn idiots, you're living in a fantasy. Trying to control such a huge power is impossible even with genjutsu!" She quickly began to weave hand signs, hoping to surprise the two ninja whilst they where in trance of pride whilst they imagined their goal.

Crack. The sound made the birds flee nearby trees as it penetrated the second of silence beforehand. Aiko had slammed her foot against the back of Rin's right leg, causing the audible shattering of her bone. "Why even try to fight you stupid bitch? This is checkmate, you've lost this battle. And so have your three idiotic genin," Aiko snared whilst grinding her foot against the broken bone in Rin's leg.

At first Rin showed no sound of pain; the shock of such brutality caused no noise to escpae the woman's lungs. But after a few seconds of comprehending the pain, Rin howled in pain whilst her face turned pale. She dug her fingers into the ground and shook her head as she felt the full weight of Aiko press against her broken leg.

The three genin were startled when they heard the sound of pain coming from the direction the were heading. "R-Rin Sensei!" Naruto began to travel faster than the other two, practically hurling himself from tree branch to tree branch. He gritted his teeth whilst he felt his blood boil as well as something else in his body increase in temperature.

"Temporary Paralysis Jutsu!" At once, all three of the genin weren't able to move a muscle in their body. Since they could not move their heads around, the three kids could only listen out for Ikumi's distorted footsteps as she ever so slowly came closer to them.

"You three brats really are a handful. Forget the byakugan and sharingan, if I don't come back with this god damn Nine Tails then I'll eventually be killed after months of sever punishment." She managed to limp her way to Naruto. She placed her hands on his back, as if for support so she didn't fall. But all of a sudden, she dug her nails into his back.

"Chakra absorption jitsu!" Ikumi arched her back as soon as she activated the jutsu. She attempted to extract only Naruto's chakra and not the Tailed Beast's chairs but since she had never had to do so before, she wasn't as effective as she hoped to be.

Her already exhausted body was already feeling a great amount of strain from using the jutsu on a jinchūriki. Blood began to drop down from her nose whilst she gritted her teeth. Her body was almost at it's limit - she may have been able to refule her chakra but her muscles were aching - and she doubted that she'd be able to remove all of Naruto's chakra.

Naruto gritted his teeth whilst he tried to mentally force his body to move. He groaned in annoyance and pain as his own chairs was being extracted from his body and allowing a more warmer, vicious chairs to take its place.

Whilst Ikumi extracted the Jinchūriki's chakra, she was unable to keep a constant concentration on the paralysis jutsu casted on the other two genin. This was the cause of her downfall. When the paralysis jutsu was accidentally broken for Sasuke, he rushed towards the rouge ninja and swung a kick towards her stomach. This caused the jutsu to be broken between Hinata and Naruto along with the ending of the extraction on chakra from Naruto's body.

"Naruto-kun!" Hinata rushed over to Naruto's side. "Are you alright? You must b-"She activated her byakugan to check on his chakra flow which caused her to stop talking mid sentence. His chakra flow was fine, in fact it was if it had been fully replenished. But the chakra had a somewhat evil aura around it; Hinata had never witnessed anything like this before so she took a step back. " Your chakra, Naruro-kun, it's as if that rouge ninja never extracted any of it..."

Sasuke squinted his eyes after what Hinata said. He then glanced over to Ikumi who let a smirk appear on her face before passing out. "Something is not right, we need to regroup with Rin immediately."

Hinata nodded her head thoroughly. "Yes, you're right Sasuke-kun, let's go Naruto-ku- Hey wait Naruto!"

The Jinchūriki has taken off, sprinting through the forest. A crack in the ground was left where he had started to travel at abnormal speed.

"Shit, what's made him so upset?" Sasuke shook his head then began to travel through the forest with Hinata as they attempted to catch up with Naruto.

 **"I've got an important mission for you. This is a mission that I'd usually give for an anbu but you are much more suited for the task." The Hokage stood next to the window, looking out at the village he was trusted with to keep safe, whilst talking to one of his shinobi.**

 **"I don't know if you're being truthful or sympathetic since my missions have been dull of lately. I mean, what possibly could I do that any of your anbu cannot?" The ninja took one look into Minato's eyes and that's all it took for him to realise the reason why he was chosen. "Ah, it's because of Naruto isn't it?"**

 **Minato nodded whilst looking over at the man. "Yes. You are one of the very few in the village who are able to suppress the Nine Tails inside of Naruto." He sat back down at his desk and tapped his fingers against some paperwork that had to be completed. He stared into the shinobi's eyes dead serious. "And if worst comes to worse on this mission, you'll have to step in and suppress the Nine Tails."**

 **"I think I understand. So you want me to act like an anbu and stay hidden whilst keeping a close eye on team 8; that's why you were thinking of choosing one of them for this mission. However, that's useless if the ninja can't suppress a tailed beast." The shinobi raised an eyebrow and smirked. "And since the other ninja who can suppress a tailed beast is on a mission, I'm your last resort?"**

 **The Hokage chuckled. "Well I never did say that you and him were the only two that could suppress the Nine Tails now did I?" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "I just hope Kushina's fears for Naruto are all just made up in her head, I truely hope no danger will appear during this mission.**

Minato's chosen ninja gritted his teeth whilst he watched the two rouge ninja attack Rin. He had raced over to where Rin was after he believed that the genin had taken down the other rouge ninja. He was only supposed to reveal himself if Naruto was in danger of losing control but his emotions took over when seeing someone he cared about so much being viciously attacked.

The ninja stopped performing the Cloak of Invisibility which meant that his physical body was now out in the open as well as his chakra that could now be found. He smirked. "I think the both of you should leave that woman alone and get the hell out of here unless you're wishing to die."

Both Aiko and Jiro turned to face this new for. When they looked towards this individual they were struck by the Sharingan's visual dominance over their body.

Rin looked up in hope at the ninja when she noticed Aiko send so much pressure to the foot that was on top of her broken leg; she couldn't feel the pressure go away on this broken leg but she could sense it. However, her hope was then struck with shock and fear. "Naruto!?"

Minato's chosen ninja looked down at Rin in total confusion. "Naruto? I ain't Naruto, I'm Obito! Rin are you hallucinating or something?"

Confusion was also met with shock and fear when someone passed by Obito at excessive speed. The said ninja didn't stop after passing Obito, he hurled himself at Jiro and swung his bare fist straight into his gut.

"You bastards! Don't you ever hurt one of my comrades again!" Naruto glared at Jiro ,who was now unconscious against a tree that had collapsed due to his impact, whilst Naruto was on all fours with a menacing red aura that consumed his body.

'Oh this is not good! The Nine Tail's chakra is leaking through the seal. But only one tail has formed from the chakra so far so if I can get it sealed away now...' Obito began to furiously weave hand signs together whilst not realising his mistake.

"You fool! There's no way that I will allow you to restrain that Jinchūriki." The genjutsu placed on Aiko wore off as soon as Obito had decided to fully concentrate on preparing to suppress the Nine Tails. She began to weave her own hand signs whilst Obito was defencless making his own hand signs.

It would have been a better idea for Aiko to have stayed silent in the current situation. Naruto's ears perked up when he heard the woman speak up. He moved between her and Obito then kicked her away from the battleground. The Nine Tails then began to corrupt his mind which caused him to face Obito and prepare to attack him.

The Tailer Beast should have attacked Obito first. Maybe then he may have had the chance to kill him right where he stood. Instead, he was able to perform his jutsu and repress its vicious chakra back inside the Forth Hokage's seal. This then caused the boy to fall onto the floor in an unconscious state.

"You really stepped in at the right time Obito." Rin smiled weakly with a pale face. "I would be mad at Minato Sensei for sending you to keep an eye on us if you didn't end up saving us." She stayed still in the position she was in since she was afraid that an immense pain would surge through her body if she moved her broken leg in even the slightest.

"You're over exaggerating Rin, your team did a really great job at defeating the rest of the rouge ninja." Obito looked over at the other two unconscious enemies. He shook his head and sighed. "I have a feeling it'll be a while before Naruto will be able to go on a mission like this again, Kushina will probably murder Minato for choosing this mission for him."

Hinata and Sasuke arrived at the scene after the drama had unfolded. Hinata was able to perform some simple medical ninjutsu on Rin's leg, not enough to heal the broken bone but enough for Rin's face to no longer look like she'd pass out from a minor movement of her leg.

Naruto had also suffered some minor burns on his skin; his body would have been damaged more so if Obito waited for the Nine Tail's chakra to engulf Naruto any further. The four of them waited for Naruto to regain consciousness before leaving.

All five of them had no choice but to leave the rouge ninja here, four of them were exhausted and wouldn't be able to haul their bodies all the way back to the village. So Obito went with his plan B. He restrained the five - after dragging the other three to where the other two were - rouge ninjas and sent a message by bird for them to be collected as soon as possible.

Obito picked up Rin and carried her on his back as they all headed back to the Leaf Village. She managed to relax her body and drift off to sleep pretty easily sine her body had passed its limit energy wise. They didn't leave in a hurry despite all of them wanting to be in the safety of their home again.

The rouge ninjas were not collected by the hidden leaf anbu, someone else made sure of that. When the anbu arrived at the location where Obito's message specifically said they were restrained, no trace of a single body could be found, just ash from a recently extinguished fire.


	24. Chapter 24: Controlling a Tailed Beast

The red haired woman paced up and down the office feeling anger, fear and guilt. She had allowed her own son to partake in a mission that almost cost him his own life it is weren't for Obito. "Why on earth did I ever let our own son go on that mission? I had my concerns from the first time I heard about the mission, I should have never allowed you to persuade me on allowing Naruto to leave the village..."

"Kushina..." The Hokage was lost for words. What could he possibly say to his wife about this outcome? Sorry that I convinced you to allow our son to go on the mission? You were right all along, Naruto should have never left the village?

Both of them looked at each other in silence. Neither knew what to say. Kushina wanted to lash out at Minato but she knew that he felt entirely responsible for what happened as he was the boy's father as well as the Hokage.

The silence was suddenly broken when their was a knock on the office's door and two ninjas walking inside. "Lord Hokage we've..." The shinobi stopped mid sentence when seeing that the Hokage wasn't alone in his office. "I'm terribly sorry, is this a bad time?"

"No, don't worry Kakashi. Please come in." Kushina leant against the Hokage's desk as she watched the two walk inside.

The other ninja tossed Minato a scroll, to which Minato caught it as if it were second nature. "We received this whilst we were out on our mission, your fears may very well be more than just your imagination after all."

Minato carefully opened the scroll and his eyes widened as he quickly read through it. "So is this confirmed or is it just a myth?"

"That is directly from the Mizukage himself." The shinobi, Jiraiya explained. "Although many of the members of the Seven Swordsmen are believed to be dead, two rouge ninjas have been spotted carrying weapons that belong to the group."

Kushina's eyes widened. "So you may be right Minato? There may be a rouge group assembling that contain members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist?"

The Forth Hokage closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he took all of this information in. "I do fear that if this group does exist and has people carrying around those weapons, there's no reason as to why the group wouldn't contain even more dangerous assets." He rubbed his temple as he looked up at Kakashi and Jiraiya. "Please, tell me what else you were able to find out." He stood up and quickly cleared his desk in order to try and make connections of the events of the past.

"When we went to the Hidden Sand Village we found out that roughly ninja unsuccessfully attempted to capture and abduct the One Tail's Jinchūriki." Kakashi shakes his head. "And I've heard a similar event happened to Naruto recently. Lord Homage, surely these two events had to be connected?"

Minato laid out countless notes and files on his desk as he attempted to relate them all, or at least some. "So Sasori of the Red Sand may well be part of this 'akatsuki' group and two members of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist may also be part of the group but we can't say for sure." He scanned through the many notes sprawled across the desk. "And maybe, just maybe those ninja that attacked Team 8 were under the control of Sasori, they may have very well been his puppets. That would explain why there was no trace of them when the anbu arrived at the seen, Sasori would have wanted to destroy evidence that could be traced back to him."

The Yellow Flash scratched his head as he looked through all of the notes for a fourth time." If we were to link all these recent events together, it suggests that the 'akatsuki' is a group of exceptionally strong rough ninja who are trying to obtain one of the strongest weapons in the ninja world - Tailed Beasts." He placed his hands down on his desk as he closed his eyes."But for what purpose?"

"Minato..." Kushina stood behind her husband and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't you thing this is far fetched? I mean how likely is it that all of these events and conspiracies are all connected?"

The Hokage shook his head. "You might be right Kushina but one thing is for certain, someone out there wants the Nine Tails, the One Tails and maybe the other seven tailed beasts." He turned around and looked out of the window, down at the village that he was meant to protect day in and day out." I don't want to take any risks. With three Jinchūriki competing this year, we'll need to step up security for this years Chūnin Exams" He glanced over at both of the ninja close to the door. "Go and make sure we have enough anbu who are not on mandatory missions for the exams."

As Kakashi and Jiraiya left the office, the red haired woman sighed and gave a slight glare to the Hokage. "I'm sure that one of those Jinchūriki is Naruto. Are you sure that it's wise to enter him into the Chūnin Exams despite you thinking that there's a rouge group of ninjas who desire the Nine Tails?"

Minato gave her a gentle smile. "You can't keep Naruto locked up forever. If this Akatsuki really do want Kurama then Naruto needs to learn how to defend himself. Not only will the exams help him grow as a ninja but no one would dare try and steal a Tailed Beast during an event this big, it would begin a war no matter if the perpetrators were a whole nation or a small gang of thugs. "

"Then if the exams are so safe then why are you increasing the security?" She folded her arms. Kushina wasn't trying to prevent her son from becoming a better shinobi, but she didn't like the idea of him in a situation with potential danger either.

The Hokage shook his head. "There is always the possibility that some fool may want a war to occur. If that is the case then we'll make sure that Naruto nor any other civilian in our village will be used as a pawn in such selfish motives."

The red haired woman frowned as she could think of no more reasons to prevent Naruto from participating in the exams. She glanced at the notes on the desk and sighed. "I'll have a think about it, but if I even sense slight danger in those exams then I'll personally drag Naruto out of it."

Minato couldn't help but smile at his wife as they came to a deal. But under that smile there was concern. If the Akatsuki was after the Nine Tails, then surely they would desire the whole beast and not just half of it. If that was the case, then Naruto wasn't the only one who would be in potential danger because of this evolving group.

Lamps across the village began to light up across the village after the sun began to set. The landscape dropped to a cool temperature which was a nice change from a day dominated by heat.

Naruto had snuck out of the house whilst his parents were focused on business. Kushina had grounded her son due to what she concluded was reckless behaviour during a mission. She also wanted him to stay in bed to recover. However, since he was the host of the Nine Tails, his body was able to recover much quicker than the average human body could; It took him less than a full day to recover.

Now the Uzumaki was bored out of his mind. There was no way that he was going to have himself confined all day inside one room. So instead, he created a clone that took his place. His ability to create shadow clones was good enough now that they could stay present in an area that was a fair distance from Naruto, or that's what he hoped anyway.

Whilst recovering, Naruto had time to reflect on the mission. He allowed Tailed Beast that was inside of him to take control, the very reason why many villagers feared Naruto in the first place. Since he had lost self control, he could have hurt any of his comrades, it would have been likely so if Obito didn't intervene. He knew he wasn't strong enough yet to protect his team.

He wanted to improve. He needed to improve. Yes, the fūinjutsu that his father was teaching him was useful but it took a long time to even learn about a new ability in the art of this jutsu because, of course, Minato was the Hokage and thus had very little time to privately teach Naruto. He had to learn from someone else during the meantime. Someone who could teach him a whole new skill set that would allow him to protect his comrades in the future.

"Dad is always going on about how Jiraiya taught him so much. Besides, he'll have to teach me since I'm the son of his former pupil." Naruto took a risk and created two shadow clones, anymore then he was at risk of breaking connection with the one back at home. His parents were three times more likely to find him out of the house now but he would also find Jiraiya three times faster. One clone searched north of the village whilst the other searched south; Naruto himself went to the Third Training Ground to look around.

Jiraiya was infamously known for constantly giving into the three sins of a shinobi so Naruto hazarded a guess that he may well be hidden in the forest in a not so sober condition.

But to the genin's surprise, he couldn't find a trace of his father's sensei. Instead, he stumbled upon another shinobi training. Naruto watched in awe as the ninja tossed shurikens in what seemed to look like random directions. However, the weapons collided with one another, causing their directions to change and allowing them to hit the center of each target which were scattered around the area, some of which would have been impossible to aim for if a shuriken was thrown normally.

"How the heck did you do that Sasuke's brother!? I've never seen anyone do something like that!" Naruto exclaimed as soon as Itachi was finished, not even thinking of the possibility of startling the Uchiha.

Fortunately, Itachi wasn't startled, he had heard the Uzumaki's footsteps before he had even thrown his first shuriken. He turned around and smiled gently at Naruto "It took a lot of practice. And this helped as well." He pointed to his glowing red eyes.

"So you're telling me that I can't learn how to do that because I'm not an Uchiha? That's so unfair?" Naruto sulked. He had only just seen the skill that Itachi presented but he already desired to master it himself.

"I never said that." Itachi replied whilst shaking his head. "I merely stated that my sharingan helped me master the technique." He shrugged. "With enough practice, I don't see why it wouldn't be impossible for any other ninja to learn."

Naruto looked at the sharingan disappear from Itachi's eyes then he thought to himself for a few seconds. "So is there any other cool jutsus you could teach me? Maybe you could help me with my genjutsu, I've never been great with it."

The Uchiha looked at the Uzumaki with surprise. "Hey, I never agreed to teaching you anything in the first place. I'll have you know that I'm quite the busy shinobi." He looked down to the Jinchūriki as he remembered the talk he had with the Forth Hokage after watching Naruto and Sasuke's battle in the academy.

"So have you decided if you want to continue being an anbu ninja or not?"

The conversation was such a long time ago and yet he had not decided on that question. The life of an anbu was often short lived and Itachi had wanted to make sure he stayed around for at least the time being due to his own personal reasons. And maybe he had just found something worth while. Teaching the Hokage's son would undoubtedly strengthen ties with the two clans and teaching the genin genjutsu may help him out in the future if someone ever attempts to steal the Nine Tails again.

"But alright Naruto, I'll give you a chance to learn from me. But this will be serious training. You aren't allowed to skip any sessions and you'll have to meet me here every morning on weekdays before 7am or I won't bother to teach you." Itachi grinned and folded his arms.

Naruto's face sparked in excitement." O-Of course Sasuke's brother! I'll be here first thing tomorrow morning. You won't regret this! " He then turned around and grinned like an idiot. Jiraya had completely fallen out of his mind. With taijutsu from his mother, fūinjutsu from his father and now genjutsu from Itachi, he was surely going on become the Fifth Hokage in no time.

Itachi chuckled and shook his head whilst watching the genin rush off. Tomorrow was Saturday.

Deep in the Takigakure village, a man and a girl were training with one another. The man threw attacks towards the girl whilst she blocked, evaded and attempted to counter attack. The village may have been a secluded one but they were hoping that this would change within upcoming events.

The man, who was also the leader of the village, smiled down at the girl who clutched her knees as she catcher her breath. "Are you ready to fall it a day? We've still got quite a while until the Chūnin Exams after all."

The girl shook her head vigorously. "No, I can keep on going for a little while. Every second that I train increases the amount of glory I can bring back to our village."

Shibuki took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright then, but I won't hold back this time. Get ready Fū!"

The jinchūriki of the Seven Tails grinned and began to get into the position of a fighting stance.


End file.
